


The story of a dragon-slayer

by cristallina



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gratsu - Freeform, Gray x Natsu - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, dragon slayers family, young rogue, young sting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-04-24 15:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 43,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4925623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cristallina/pseuds/cristallina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU!fic. This is a gratsu fic (Gray x Natsu)...Natsu is a student at Fairy Tail High School and that's where his adventure will start. He will have to go through many ups and downs but the presence of his family and friends will help him manage! Dragon-slayers are all family members in this fic and rated M just in case -.-' ...I hope you'll enjoy</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MiyuTanemura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiyuTanemura/gifts).



> Hi~ there guys ^^
> 
> so here's a little something before you start the story :p this story is my very first fic EVER! so please be gentle with me m(_ _)m also, I would like to say that it's dedicated to my dear friend MiyuTanemura to whom I must thank for encouraging me to write :D
> 
> Disclaimers: well, I think it's pretty obvious that I don't own anything from the characters or the anime/manga itself *shrugs shoulders*...they belong to Hiro Mashima \\(^v^)/
> 
> otherwise I hope you'll enjoy *grin* and that I don't disappoint you -.-'

In a world where fantasy clashes with reality there are humans and mythical creatures living. Humans are separated in two branches. One represents those who are born normal with nothing extravagant to define them while the other defines those who are called mages. These latter are ones who have the capacity to wield magic and possess powers so special that it would seem unrealistic. Although it sounds great, mages are ostracized by those who describe themselves as being normal. This made some of the powerful magicians to take a huge decision. Create a magic council.

This group of mages came to the conclusion that it would be a better option for them to not only desert the lands where the non-magic wielders live but to also found their own country. A place they can live-in in peace and build their own future without worrying about being mocked and despised for every action they make! Mages isolated themselves from society in a land far away, a land known only by them.

Unfortunately, happiness can sometimes be followed by grief and sorrow. After settling in these lands and creating their own society, families were established, houses were built, children were born and the council took the role of leadership. Generations have gone by gradually, and the new generations have contributed greatly in the expansion of their country. New tools were invented; the economy has reached its highest and health care systems were starting to be established. Happy vibes were flooding the city. Then came the day where human and mages started to get along step by step. Deals were made in the economy field, medical tactics were shared between both societies and most importantly, marriages between a magic wielder and a non-magic wielder were being held more often. In other words, prejudice and discrimination were starting to diminish and that's where the unpredictable hit them. Dragons!

It happened so fast no one was able to comprehend what hit them. Many dragons came soaring in the sky like it belonged to them and then started firing at all the citizens their powerful roars. It was chaos! The council was trying to protect their citizens by creating shields and attacking the offenders while parents were trying to shield their own children from the deadly attacks, older siblings doing their best to bring their younger siblings to safety while men did their best to avert the danger from their families and friends. That year could be described as being in hell on earth! Many people died, got injured severely or were not even found. People were separated from their families and friends because they were transported or sent-away in different lands. In other words, this hideous war leads to the creation of many cities in which citizens are mixed between mages and normal humans.

It may have caused the unity between mages and humans but it also created a lot of pain and misery to most of the survivors. It was later on discovered that there are dragons who sided with the humans during the war and that they contributed by sharing their powers with some humans. These humans are the main reason this war has become a lost cause to dragons who retreated as soon as they realized that.

With every story there must be an end…and it is in the human nature to stand up and rebuild everything from scratch. The world has changed all-over again. Cities were built instead of countries; the magic council still held the power to lead the people and education became an important aspect in society. Many powerful and renowned mages decided that it would be a wise decision to educate the future generations and to give them better access to school so that there won't be a repeat of history. It would allow the younger generations to attain better control of their magical powers. In each city, there had to be a magical school and a non-magical school built. To distinguish between the two, some people started naming magical schools as guilds.

The only problem that encountered some cities such as Magnolia is that not all magic wielders were accepted. Mages are very powerful and are gifted with some magic powers that can be unique from and individual to another. The problem lies within these powers. Magic wielders are separated in three different groups. In the first group, there are the common ones that one can meet every day in the city. The second group contains the individuals who possess some rare magic type known as the lost magic. This group isn't very much appreciated by the other citizens but they can still manage with having them live between them in the countless cities. Finally, the third type of magic is the rarest of them all; in fact it's the most unusual type ever known! It's so rare that there are only a handful of people that can wield that type of magic. The dragon-slaying magic…Even though mages categorized in the second group are somewhat tolerated, those in the third group are still completely shunned by society! After all, dragons are known for their strong hate towards humans and the numbers of death caused by them are uncountable…so why would their slayers be anything close to being better than them?

Then again, if they're dragon-slayers it simply means that they accepted to wield magic that comes from the creatures that did genocide on humans! It may be true that they were the ones who saved the day back then but it's easier for humans to direct their hate and anger towards one of their own than towards a specie that may or may have not become extinct…

That's where the wheel of fate starts turning and the story of seven dragon-slayers thriving in a world of love and war starts.


	2. Good morning!

Flowers were blooming in the early morning and birds were chirping to indicate the start of a new day. The sun was slowly rising from the horizon allowing its rays to spread in the city of Magnolia, reaching far-out in the outskirts of town where a mansion was standing tall in the elegant field of diverse types of flowers. The sunrays were able to access the small crack that was present between closed curtains of the room situated in the farthest corner from the left of the mansion. This small quantity of light permitted the room to clear from the darkness a bit which allowed the body covered by a light blanket to stir lightly and to burry its head under the covers. Suddenly, the sound emanating from the collision of a door on a wall was heard which caused the covered boy to hold onto his pillow and place it over his head to muffle all the unneeded sounds coming from the entrance of the room. This action has not bothered the intruder who was now standing on the mattress holding the rooms' occupant that was trying to regain the slumber he was in a few seconds ago.

"WAKE-UUUUUP! Come on Natsu-nii get-up! Rise and shine, its morning! Come on, come on, come on!"

"Sting I swear if you don't stop jumping on my back right now I'll make sure you won't be able to walk for the next century!"

"Ahahahahaha~ you're so funny in the morning Natsu-nii"

"Get. Off. Of. Me. NOW!"

The young child didn't even have the time to react to his older brothers' threat before he found himself thrown on the floor with a loud thump. Meanwhile the pink haired teenager got up grumpily from his bed and headed to the bathroom that's built-in inside of his bedroom leaving a light-blond child to attend to himself on the floor.

The twelve-years-old child stood-up from his spot caressing the spot on his head that hit the floor while pouting. "Natsu-nii is a big huge-polka-dot of an idiot!" Although he tried to make it a whisper, Natsu has an over-developed sense of hearing. "Excuse me, mind repeating that again young man?" His voice came out in a wicked way which freaked the young blond out who ran away, before it was too late, out of the room. Natsu let out a sigh and collapsed back on his bed trying to go back to sleep instead of readying himself for the day that awaits him. He was just about to reach his previous state of slumber when Sting came back in revealing something that made the tanned-skin teenager to jump-out of his dozing state and sit straight on his bed.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to say this before leaving, but Cobra-nii is back!" he was so excited he couldn't control the huge grin that his lips were forming "and Laxus-nii is expecting us to have breakfast together for today so he said that if you don't show-up in about ten minutes downstairs he'll come-up to specially escort you to the table~"

As soon as the words were formed Natsu started paling and his eyes grew wider while his mouth dropped open from its initial spot. "Hum? … Sting? …When did this ten minutes start?"

The young boy placed his index finger on his chin as if to indicate that he was trying to remember but Natsu knew better and had a feeling that he was being mocked in the instant.

Sting retrieved his hand back to his side and gave a bright smile to his older brother who was holding back on beating his younger brother to a pulp!

"Well…after Laxus-nii sent me to wake you I went to Rogues' room and didn't find him in it, I'm pretty sure he's already sitting in the dining table." He laughed at the thought while scratching the top of his head. "Then I started heading back over here but on my way I found Gajeel-nii's room door open so I had the urge to enter and disturb him which wasn't a great idea since he was still sleeping…and you know…he can be very scary when woken-up" shivers ran through his spine when his thoughts drifted back to a fuming Gajeel trying to catch him. He forced himself to forget about what happened by shaking his head violently and resumed giving what he liked to call his report to Natsu. "Yup! And I ended-up here remembering my initial mission captain!" he rose his right hand in front of his temple and hid his left one behind his back, all that while grinning stupidly at his older brother.

Natsu looked at the idiotic fool in front of him wondering for the millionth time why he had to deal with such an idiot so early in the morning. "So? You still haven't told me how much has gone by since you talked to that monster of a brother…"

Realization downed upon the younger of the two and with a swift movement of the arm he snapped his fingers together while exclaiming an "Oh yeah!"

"It was 7h05 when he sent me to get you."

The pink-haired boy only had the time to check the digital clock that was placed on a shelve in his room and read 7h35 before a loud scream came from the end of the hallway.

"NATSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

"Oh fuck!" The said boy started freaking out while trying to get out of the covers that got tangled around him for no reason.

By the time he was able to untangle himself and dress-up, Laxus was standing in front of his door frame fuming with anger. His usually light-blue eyes got slightly darker and his lips were forming an angry snarl that got the other two to hold on to each other while shaking from fear.

"I thought I told you to be downstairs in ten!"

"Ah…yea~h…about that, Sting may or may not have been through an adventure before reaching my quarters…hahaha…" Natsu got-out a sheepish laugh while praying any god out there that he'll come out of this intact.

"HO~? I'll give you a head-start of ten seconds to the both of you. If I reach the dining table and don't find any of you there, I'll make sure to eradicate you from the surface of the earth. Understood?"

The younger boys didn't need to be told twice, before they knew it they were sitting around a table that was already occupied by their four other siblings.

The only girl living in this household greeted them good morning and chuckled at her brothers shenanigans so early in the day.

"Good morning to you too Wendy, glad to know that my near-to-death experience amuses you so much!"

"Don't worry Natsu-nii, everything about you is funny"

Sigh. "I hope that wasn't meant to make me feel better…"

The thirteen-years-old girl gave-out a light chuckle to her older brothers' grumbles.

"Gihi!" The raven head took a fork and started to eat the breakfast their older brother Laxus prepared for them. "Don't go reverting your anger on the innocent because of your idiocy salamander!"

Natsu took hold of his own fork and started engulfing what was on his plate while glaring hard at Gajeel who was sitting next to the young Wendy.

"Shut-up you metal-face! At least I don't go clubbing all night and then lash out on my younger brother for trying to wake-me!"

"Natsu-nii that's exactly what you did actually…well minus the clubbing part!" the young boy grinned and added a "well I'm sure it's because you're too scared to go in a club alone" but regretted his words as soon as they came-out for he felt a burning glare directed at him. When he turned to see who it was from he came to realize that if glares could kill he would have been a pile of ash by now…scary!

"Shut your mouth or I will shut you off Sting!" The way his name was pronounced didn't help to relieve his doubts either, again…scary! His thoughts were interrupted when a soft voice came out from the chair next to him that wasn't occupied by Natsu.

"Why do you insist on making Gajeel-nii and Natsu-nii angry every morning? It's getting very exhausting and stupid to hear you guys bickering every day about nothing."

"E~h? but it's fun!" Sting exclaimed while raising his hands up in the air "Why don't you try annoying them once in a while as well Rogue? I'm sure you'll find it fu-"

His exclamation was suddenly stopped when a fist found its way on top of his head. "Fun huh? I'll show you what fun is!" Natsu took hold of Sting in a head-lock and started rubbing his knuckles on top of his head all that while the younger of the two was trying to get away from his arms and screaming for him to let go of him.

"You guys can beat yourself up for all I care but can you take it outside? You're being noisy and it's annoying I can't even eat breakfast in peace with you guys around!"

"Oi you fucker! Isn't it your fault that we're awake this early anyway? Couldn't you just show-up in the afternoon or something? The fuck do I care if it has been a month since the last time we saw you Cobra?! How does that even explain that we have to eat breakfast together? Man Laxus can be such an idiot sometimes!"

The purple head didn't even bother looking at his interlocutor when he responded in a monotone voice "I'd take what I just said back right now Gajeel if I were you."

"Huh?! I ain't no coward!"

"Ano, Gajeel-nii…" Wendy started

"If you don't like what I said just suck-it-up then! Gihi!"

Rogue's eyes started widening while Sting tried but to no avail to swallow the lump that formed at his throat. At the same time Cobra took a sip of his cup of coffee without a care in the world and Natsu just stiffened on his seat feeling bad for his one year older brother but didn't bother commenting. Thinking that Gajeel deserves it he went back to his previous task and started to devour the rest of the food on his plate.

Wendy saw the indifference that was shown by her two older brothers and decided that she could go back to eating as well…This left the younger siblings of the household to watch with poorly hidden fear Laxus standing behind the spot where Gajeel was sitting with some sort of dark aura emanating from him.

Gajeel saw the fright that was coloring Sting and Rogues' faces but regretted questioning them about it when he got two fingers pointing behind him as an answer…

As soon as he turned his head to see what was behind him, his smile faltered his eyes opened wider than what they're supposed to and his form started shaking.

The dark voice that came next didn't help him to control his fear at all!

"You know, I thought only Natsu would be stupid enough to try and defy me" this got a jerk from the pink head who got slightly irritated but shut his mouth as he didn't want the bulky man's anger to be drifted towards him "but I never thought that you would too. I thought you were smarter than this" the blondes' hand found its way on Gajeel's shoulder putting a lot more pressure than needed. "Isn't that right Gajeel ?" The said man started sweating bullets and stood-up abruptly which caused the hand that was holding him to loosen-up and allow the raven head to run-away while screaming: "GIHI! I'm late! Gotta go to school, BYE!"

"Ah! Wait! Gajeel-nii! Our way to school is the same, let's go together!" Sting went and took his already prepared school bag from the floor and ran after his older brother followed closely by Rogue.

The instant they heard the front door shut Laxus sat down in his spot and started eating his cold breakfast while Natsu cleared his plate as well as the absentees' ones. "Eh? That's not fair!"

The blond looked-up from his plate. "What's not fair Wendy?"

"How come Sting and Rogue get to walk together with Gajeel-nii to school while I have to walk alone when I frequent the same school as Natsu-nii?" her eyes started tearing-up causing the pink head to furrow his brows and form a sad smile on his lips.

"I already told you Wendy, we don't want others to know that we live together or that we're a family! Gajeel, Rogue and Sting go to a school outside of the city of Magnolia while you and Natsu go to Fairy Tail High! That's literally in the middle of town! Besides, they go separate ways as soon as they reach town!"

"Laxus can't you hand-it to her in a nicer way?"

"Shut your mouth Cobra it's none of your business how I say it!" Laxus went back to eating his breakfast meaning he is not going to continue arguing about this matter. During that small talk Natsu was able to go retrieve his bag and head back to where his other siblings were.

"We can argue about it being my business for a long time and you know that. She is my younger sister too but that's not the point here" Cobra got-up from his seat and headed towards the one next to Wendy and waved for Natsu to sit on the other side of the blue head. Natsu complied without arguing for he knew that his younger sister was upset and he didn't want to be the reason why she would be sadder.

"Listen to me Wendy; I am quite aware of the fact that you know what we are right?" He got a nod from her head as an answer. "Now imagine if one of us got revealed and that everyone knows we are a family…Don't you think that it would not only endanger the one who was discovered but all of us? But, if no one knows that we're siblings and that we're living together then it would be easier to protect our secret! It would also give us a better chance to protect whoever of us would be revealed…So people can't know what and who we are, they can't know that we're related either alright?" During his little explanation, Cobra's hand found its way on Wendys' head and started patting her gently while giving her a warm smile trying to boost her mood up!

Wendy took comfort in this gest and lowered her head while humming and mumbling a "It doesn't change the fact that it's lonely to live like this"

Sigh. Cobra couldn't handle seeing her dejected anymore so he told her: "Fine! But ONLY once a week! Got it? I won't permit for more than that! You get to walk to school with Natsu only once a week . . . Capiche?"

Wendy got a huge smile printed on her face and jumped in her older brothers' arms while crying happy tears and throwing some thank you's here and there. Natsu was watching her reaction from beside her all along and couldn't refrain the grin from forming on his lips. He stood-up excited about leaving with his sister to school. What's wrong with a grown-up teenage boy feeling lonely leaving home to school as well? He may get to walk the other half of the road with his friends but it wasn't the same thing as leaving with your family from the same door together!

"Let's go Wendy or we'll be late!" his voice was showing how thrilled he was about the deal Wendy made with their older brother.

"You're growing too soft Cobra…I think it's stupid but I won't interfere it's up to you to make a choice." Sigh. "I'm leaving first, I've got to be there before you guys since I'm a teacher and all, see ya tonight Wendy, Cobra. And it's a see ya later Natsu!" With that, Laxus left leaving the three teenagers alone at home.

"Later?"

"Ah! Yeah…Laxus is kinda my physics teacher in school…" A sheepish smile got hold of Natsus' lips and his right hand found its way behind his head scratching on his pink locks.

"Wow! That's just hilarious! That explains why you never skip your physics classes" Cobra patted the pinkettes' head while laughing loudly causing the pink head to get irritated.

"Hey! You're no better! Look at you being a senior and still skipping your classes!"

"Oh! And you're the good student that attends all his classes is that it?"

Natsu snorted before giving a loud "hmph". "Let's just leave Wendy, if I don't get to our meeting spot soon Erza will kill me" A shiver ran through his spine just by the thought of what the red head would do to him if he was even a milli-second late. With that he grabbed his younger sisters' hand and ran through the door towards their destination leaving Cobra to take care of locking the door. Laughing lightly Cobra started walking on the road to his high school. "Being a 19 years-old brother is not an easy task…"

Nearing his destination, Cobra stopped and raised his head to look at the clear sky muttering: "Well…I guess that's nothing compared to us being dragon-slayers."

"I wonder what the future holds for us!" With that he took his last step towards the schools' entrance.


	3. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go guys :) the next chapter! hope you enjoy~
> 
> Also, I'd like to thank MiyuTanemura for beta-ing this chapter m(_ _)m

After leaving Cobra behind to deal with locking the house alone, Natsu kept dragging Wendy to where he usually meets with his group of friends. The walk was very slow and uneventful causing both teenagers to stare into space. Natsu places his hands behind his head while his bag's hanging from one shoulder. As for Wendy, she is quietly admiring her surroundings. The road they usually take to head to school starts from their, or more like Laxus', mansion's gate and continues across a forest. It separates into three different routes by the exit of the vast field of greenery. It's in that exact spot that they usually wait for the others to join them…Although, in regular days, Natsu leaves the mansion before Wendy who follows him after making sure that enough time has gone by, ensuring the fact that a fair distance was put between them in the road.

When they arrive to destination, the meeting spot was empty. After all, they did wake-up earlier than usual this morning…which kind of caused for the both of them to arrive here first for a change…

Remembering the events that occurred about an hour ago with his brothers, Natsu lets out an aggravated sigh. Proving that the irritation he felt towards his siblings has still not diminished. To avoid thinking more about this morning, he tries to occupy his mind by engaging himself in a conversation with Wendy.

A question pops in his head as Cobras' discussion floods his mind.

"Say Wendy, have you ever thought about where you would be in the future?"

Taken by surprise from such a question, the blue haired girl stands dumbfounded for a few seconds before regaining her composure.

"Not really...Why? Does the future bother you?"

"I wouldn't say it bothers me…it's more like it makes me curious on where I'll be standing in a couple of years," he started staring off while his voice got a bit tighter which didn't go unnoticed by the girl standing in front of him, "and would the life I will be leading make me happy or would it be miserable?"

Wendy gives her brother a knowing look before answering.

"Well…I wouldn't say that I think of it, per se, but if I try to imagine what my life would look like in the years to come then I would say that it will always be next to you and everyone else! I can't, and don't want to, imagine a life where my family is absent!" Brown eyes, holding so much determination, were looking straight into a set of gentle olive ones. A soft smile traced itself on the surprisingly soft pink lips of the tan skinned boy and Wendy could hardly help herself from smiling back. Their thoughts were abruptly stopped when they heard a familiar voice calling them.

"Natsu!" followed by a "Wendy's here too! You guys are here so early!"

With a bright grin Natsu replied "Hey Luce!"

"Good morning Lucy-san!"

"What're you guys doing here so early? Usually you're the last ones to arrive!"

Wendy started stuttering an answer, trying hard to find something to come-up with as an excuse but it was to no avail. Fortunately for her, Natsu was there to save the day.

"I slept way too early yesterday so, ya know, ended-up waking as early as a rooster! By the time the clock hit seven I was ready, so instead of loafing aroun-" Lucy stared at him as if he was crazy, "don't look at me like that I have my serious moments too! Anyways, as I was saying," he cleared his throat, "instead of loafing around in the house, I thought of taking a walk and well…" He started scratching the back of his head sheepishly, "here I am…" Natsu looked at the blond girl hoping she won't catch him on his lie. His doubts were instantly cleared when he heard a soft chuckle coming from her way.

"Wow! Sounds just like something you would do! Even if the loafing around part sounds somewhat suspicious…" she stuck her tong out when she earned a half-hearted glare from the pink head. "So? How come Wendy's with you?"

"Yeaaahhh…" He averts his eyes from her. "About that…we live in the same area, right?" A light nod from Lucy signals for him to continue. "I kind of, let's say, took a detour towards her house and…you know…" Natsu scratches his cheek. "Woke her up and made her accompany me." He ends with a small laugh earning a blank look from Lucy and swiftly directs his gaze somewhere else.

Lucy sighs. "Natsu, Natsu, Natsu! What're we gonna do with you? It's not very nice to go bother others just because you felt like it! And-"

"It's okay Lucy-san! I'm sure Natsu-san didn't mean to bother me." She gives said boy a thankful look. "Besides, it was nice having the company on my way here!" Wendy has a bright smile etched on her features. This causes Lucy to jump on her and hug her tightly while squealing.

"Oh! You're so cute Wendy! I just feel like kidnapping you right now! Why can't you be my sister? Or better yet! My daughter!" Natsu laughs at that but Lucy doesn't bother to even glance his way, she's too busy hugging Wendy to death. The blue headed girl takes hold of Lucy's forearms and tries to remove herself from between the older woman's arms but it's pointless.

"Lucy-san! Please let go of me." She squeezes her eyes shut. "You're strangling me!" The said girl lets go of her captive and starts flailing around.

"I'm so sorry Wendy! But you were so cute! I just couldn't help myself!" Natsu can't control his laughter anymore and it just gets louder until a certain someone's voice made him choke on it…

"Why are you guys being so noisy this early in the morning?"

"Ah! Erza-san! Good morning!" Wendy then turns her head towards the boy standing next to her previous interlocutor. "Good morning to you as well, Gray-san!"

Erza nodded while Gray gave her a slight wave of his hand.

"Yo, Erza! Stripper!" Natsu greets while shifting the bag on his shoulder.

"Yo, flame-brain! Noisy as ever aren't we? Have you finally gone cuckoo?" He places his hand next to his temple, making a circular motion to emphasize his point.

Irritated, Natsu smashes his forehead with Gray's.

"Hah?! Ya got a problem with that, pants-shogun?"

"You bet I do! Watcha gonna do about it, ash for brain?"

"Stupid stripper!"

"Flame-brain!"

"Ice princess!"

"Crazy flame spewer!"

With every insult pronounced their voices got louder and their irritation gets the best of them.

"Popsicle idiot!"

"Tabasco bastard!"

"Perv-" Natsu isn't able to finish his words when an iron fist landed on top of his head.

"You fools! How many times must I repeat myself? NO FIGHTING! Friends aren't supposed to be punching each other! They're supposed to care for each other and express their dying love to each other!" A dark aura is flowing around Erza, causing her hair to float a bit. Her eyes are gleaming red while her muscles are tensing as if she's ready to punch someone. Well, to be more precise, she's ready to beat the two boys shivering in front of her to a pulp!

But thank god Lucy and Wendy felt pity for them.

"Erza-san, if we don't leave soon we'll be late!"

"Yeah Erza! Forget about these idiots and let's go!" Lucy places her index finger on her cheek and winks with a smile. "We can't have our student council president arriving late to school now would we? Think of how that would affect the councils' reputation!"

Lucy's words act like a spell, as soon as Erza manages to catch what's being told to her, she ignores the boys sitting on the floor and starts down the road leading to Fairy Tail high.

When she gets out of their vision, Natsu and Gray get up and start heading to where the girls were.

"Man, she's scary! It should be illegal to have such a demonic aura!"

"Hate to agree with you but, tell me about it!" Natsu points behind him. "Still, it beats your stripping habits".

"WHAT?! WHEN?!" Gray's only attire at the present is his pants, a kind of silver necklace that resembles a sword with a stone in it and a metal bracelet. His shirt is proudly lying on the floor a few meters behind them.

Gray goes to pick his shirt and put it back on his toned and muscular body. After a task well done, he catches-up with Natsu and starts muttering about how he still can't understand why his clothes always disappear all of a sudden.

Meanwhile, Natsu's thinking of a way to run away from doing his chemistry lab report, which is due in a few hours, without getting into trouble. Maybe he should pretend that some sort of hideous creature from outer-space came and threatened him so he was too busy running away from it and couldn't find the time to complete his lab report…Nah! The movie presenting this plot is too popular; it would be an obvious lie. Natsu sighs.

"Oi squinty eyes!" A tick mark formed on the pink haired teenager.

"Hah?! What did you just call me, you droopy-eyes?"

"You heard me you pyro-maniac. Oh! Wait! Or was it too hard for you to understand?"

 _That's it!_ He couldn't take it anymore! Natsu lifts his fist showing that he's ready for a fight.

"Are you looking for a fight you bastard?"

Gray gives him a cool and stoic look which pisses the dragon-slayer mage even more causing him to clench his teeth tighter.

"As much as I'd like to see you bow down to me after your defeat, I'm not really fond of the idea of having a scarlet devil unleashed on me."

Natsu gave an aggravated sigh. The mention of Erza alone serves to cool down Natsu's nerves. "Yeah…I guess you're right you damn ice prick."

"I'm always right you retard! But that's not my point…" he clears his throat "so? Did you finish your chem report?"

Natsu stares at him blankly for a few seconds before replying. "You just _had to_ remind me didn't you?"

"I'll take that as no then."

"No, seriously! I was trying very hard to eradicate this report from my memories, thinking that maybe a memory loss would help my cause, and I was doing a great job at it too! But you just _had_ to go and mention it to me!"

Gray acts as if he was stunned by such news. "Oh wow! I've heard of idiots before but this is just incredible! Can you get any more stupid? Because if you can, with such a brain, then I'm pretty sure that the world is doomed! You'll be the end of it!"

"I don't see how this is related…besides, I don't see you holding a completed lab report you popsicle breath!"

"Just shut-up and keep walking"

"…" Olive eyes stare at the raven head incredulously wondering why he has to deal with such an annoying person… _Oh yeah! Erza! Yup! That surely is why!_

"…"

"…"

"Are you sure you haven't completed the lab report?" A glare is enough for Gray to understand that no, indeed, Natsu hasn't even bothered to touch his lab report. Gray's thoughts have gone out of control. _Oh great. Miss Evergreen will never spare them the lecture…not to mention the horrible grade…maybe today will be a happy day to her and spare them a bit! Yeah! That's right! They shouldn't give-up hope yet! They still have a chance to come-out safe from it! Never give-up hope!_


	4. Anxiousness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there guys *waves hand*
> 
> so I just wanted to thank MiyuTanemura for beta-ing this chapter as well, seeing that if she didn't you guys would have been in on some very crappy writing -.-'
> 
> so thanks a lot dear :D
> 
> Also a many thanks for the one who gave kudos, bookmarked and even thought of reading this story! thank you *bows*

_Bullshit! This is plain bullshit! There's no such thing as hope when it comes to this heartless teacher…_ Gray thought. Miss Evergreen was nothing close to being kind; her mood wasn't at its best either. In fact, Evergreen was in her worst mood today. She could only see red because of her foul mood. Her behavior with the students and how she interpreted the supposedly innocent words that came out of her students mouths was manipulated by her bad mood. During those two and a half hours of chemistry, the students suffered without being given a reason. In other words, the two rivals were far from being spared by their currently diabolical teacher. Miss Evergreen was beyond frustrated when she didn't receive any form of paper from the boys and seeing how her eyes gave-out a red glint; said boys knew they were doomed.

At the sound of the bell, all the students fled from the classroom as if they were being followed by an evil spirit, causing those who were in the hallway to stare at them weirdly. But, at the moment, none of them cared about how they looked in to the eyes of the others; all they wanted was to run away from the gorgeous demon that was giving them a chemistry lecture a few seconds ago. In the midst of these students, stood two good-looking teenagers whose souls seemed to be escaping from their mouths? Their oh-so-great teacher ended-up giving them a hard to obtain grade. They both got a hundred in their assignment, but there was one thing wrong about it. It stood in the negatives.

* * *

Natsu wasn't thrilled about that at all! Today must be a bad one for him. The anxiety he felt was getting closer to its peak; starting the day with that depressing conversation and now this. He was never going to escape his brother's wrath. Laxus will surely kill him as soon as he discovers about this abominable red mark… _Even Cobra hasn't reached this level of stupidity!_ Natsu's anxiety was eating at him from the inside, so he took a deep breath trying to calm down. It helped him a bit but it didn't quell the uneasiness that he still felt. Trying to ignore the feeling, he lifted his head up and looked, from the side, at his rival who was still hunched against the wall. He couldn't help but to feel bad for his rival but not that much, after all, Gray isn't the one who will be skinned alive – he is! Gray can save himself from being punished by catching-up in the coming exams and next set of assignments. Technically speaking, Natsu can too but seeing that the bulky spiky haired monster works as a teacher in the same school Natsu attends, doesn't help one bit! And if the rumors are true, then he is surely going to get it from his older brother. Miss Evergreen is one of his followers along with the spell-casting and wood-carving teachers. There is no way on earth that the busty teacher will ever hide such a thing from the physics teacher. Natsu is convinced that she will complain about her classroom to Laxus and his grade is surely going to come-out in the so-called conversation between them, it is in her nature to doom her students.

With a heavy sigh, Natsu walks towards his locker with Gray by his side. Their lockers are situated next to each other. When they reach them, they replace their chemistry materials by their physics ones. Fate must be against him not only today but since the first day of school! _How many chances in a million can a guy end-up choosing the course and be in the same classes as their rivals? ONE! It's one chance in a million!_ Natsu gives an aggravated sigh and kicks his locker shut waiting for his rival to be done.

Gray is able to catch sight of the uneasy expression that is written across Natsu's face. He is ignorant to what is bothering the pink head but something in the back of his mind tells him that Natsu isn't alright since he set his eyes on him when they met in the morning. It might be true that they are rivals but that doesn't mean that Gray doesn't give a damn about the boy walking next to him. Actually, there is this small part of Gray that cares about the boy deeply, even if he will never admit it. That soft side surprised even him, the first time he realized he had it – he went berserk thinking that he was going crazy. It specially manifests itself during these very rare moments where Natsu isn't acting like his usual boisterous self. During the moments where Natsu isn't trying to get on his nerves, where he is unusually calm or taking a brief nap in the midst of lunch break. During these moments Natsu looks just too adorable…Okay, maybe not adorable but still cute. Unfortunately, these moments are called rare for a reason. They don't occur often enough, to the point where Gray only gets the chance to see them once, twice if he's lucky, per year! After shutting his locker, he heads with Natsu towards Laxus's class.

When they reach their classroom, they find their blond friend already sitting at the back of the room. Lucy chose a seat next to a window, the seat on her other side is occupied by her playboy of a boyfriend, Loke. Her elbow is poised on the desk and she is leaning on her hand while talking to Loke. She looks up and takes notice of the presence of the boys that are still standing under the door frame. Lucy waves them hello and they decide to go in. Natsu takes the seat in front of the busty blond girl and Gray sits beside him just in front of Loke. They exchange some words before Laxus comes in, indicating with his arrival that it is time to start the physics lecture.

 _Boring._ That's all Natsu can think about as Laxus is explaining the course's material to his current students. Things such as momentum and impulsion are mentioned, but Natsu isn't paying attention at all to anything that comes out of the teacher's mouth. He still has that restless feeling inside of him and it isn't going away anytime soon. His head is leaning on the palm of his right hand and he is daydreaming while starring out of the window. The view is so appeasing and calming that his eyelids are getting heavier and so, it's harder to keep them open. Until something hits his head painfully, causing him to fully wake-up and turn his head towards the culprit.

Gray is staring absently ahead of him, bored of the lecture to the extreme and trying very hard to stay awake. In front of the class, Laxus is explaining the theory behind a weird formula that looks and sounds so alien until his clear-blue eyes drift to the seat next to Gray. His aura darkens and he lifts the hand that is holding the chalk he was writing with a few seconds ago. Realizing what's going to happen, Lucy tries to get Natsu to pay attention by poking him on his back but it is useless. Gray is about to take over but it is too late, a flash of white flies from their teacher's hand aiming at the pink head who is clueless about what's happening around him. Gray can't help himself from smirking when he hears Natsu groan in pain, although he feels a tiny bit bad about not giving the boy any warning.

Natsu caresses the bump that is forming between his pink locks and shouts, "The hell?! What was that for?"

"It's nice to know that watching the sun set ever so slowly is more interesting and _important_ than my lecture!" Natsu is about to retort to that but remembers who he is talking to and tenses slightly. Reminding himself that if Laxus chose to be merciful here, then he won't let him escape from his clutches when he gets home. He is definitely going to chew him off at home… Or so he would have thought if it was any other day. Today he isn't feeling well and he just wants the day to end. Natsu would have skipped the rest of the day if it weren't for the fact that he knew if word of it came to Laxus, he was in for a long and ear damaging scolding. He gives out a sigh before saying in a monotone voice, "Sorry…not my fault if physics isn't my thing."

"Your thing or not your thing, I don't give a fuck! When you step into my classroom I expect you to do two things", Laxus continues with a stern voice, "It's whether you come here to learn like you should be doing or to get the _fuck_ out!" He points his finger towards the door.

Natsu stares at his older brother for a few seconds and then looks at where he is pointing. The uneasiness in him gets worse; he needs fresh air and fast! He feels his chest tighten and there's this heat that is emerging from the core of his body, causing his anxiousness to worsen. Natsu tries to control his voice when he replies, "Yeah…sure…I'll opt for the _getting the fuck out of here_ option". Students gasp loudly at his answer, expecting their teacher to lash at him. Little did they know that the teacher himself is stunned at Natsu's unexpected words. The tan skinned boy gets up from his seat, holds his unopened books and leaves without giving a second glance to his teacher and classmates. Leaving a dumbfounded Laxus who stares wide-eyed and jaw slacked at his younger brother's back.

At the back of the room, Lucy is shifting in her seat, wanting to run after her friend but scared of what will happen to her if she does. Loke balances himself on the back legs of his chair and whistles at Natsu's action. As for Gray, he is in the same state as his physics teacher. His earlier doubts got confirmed with this. Natsu may possess a daring character but he never retorts back to Laxus, especially when the blond man is angry at him! Or even worse, Natsu never dared leave in the middle of a class even if the one giving it would piss him off to no end. This was a first! Gray's expression turns worried. _Natsu._ Laxus decides to ignore what happened for now and continues with his class as if nothing had happened.

When the bell indicating it is time for lunch rings, Gray runs straight to the cafeteria knowing that his rival and friend will be there. He finds him sitting and laughing with Wendy at one of the tables far-off at the back of the room. A normal person would think that the pink head is actually happy and that his laugh is genuine but Gray isn't a normal person, he isn't fooled. Natsu's lips may be forming a huge grin but it definitely doesn't reach his gorgeous green olive eyes. This makes Gray's worries amplify but he decides not to pry into the other's business and keeps walking until he reaches the table both of his friends are sitting at.

Gray gives them a level headed stare when he reaches them and lightly hits the back of Natsu's head. "Yo, flame-brain, you could've had the sympathy of dragging me with you out of that hell-hole!"

Natsu gives him a half-hearted glare for the slap but otherwise replies with a vague "yeah…maybe next time".

His reply doesn't ease Gray's worry but he decides to ignore it and sits next to him while stealing a shrimp from Natsu's lunch. They are, later on, joined by the rest of the group which consists of Lucy, Loke and Erza. They are greeted by them and end-up, as usual, engaging into many different conversations.

Lunch goes by fast and the group of friends leaves to attend their respective classes. Wendy goes back to her campus while Lucy and Erza head to their lockers to pick their things. That leaves the three boys who have the same class together yet again. On their way, they see a group of students huddled in front of a dark classroom. Being in his nature and all, Loke drags his two other friends towards the students making his way to the front of the group with his charms. Natsu and Gray sigh in unison knowing that they were going to be late to their next class - which is situated at the very end of the campus, and it is their favorite course to boot! They bump on Loke who stands still at the sight in front of him. Curiosity takes the lead when they hear shouts coming from inside. Both boys peer from Loke's sides to have a clearer view of what's happening. They are stunned by what they see. Inside, lying on the floor and bleeding profusely, is a young child. It seems like he lost consciousness a long time ago, but even through that, the older boys that were surrounding him didn't stop from beating him to a pulp. Sneers such as "you disgusting lost magic user" and "there's no need for magic users such as you in society, you should go ahead and die!" are heard from the violent teenagers.

A scowl forms on Loke's features while Gray's bangs create a shadow over his eyes and both have their fists clenched tightly. They are about to interfere when they see a flash of pink enter the room causing all the bullies to fall unconscious on the floor, leaving their leader intact. The leader stands there stunned by what just happened but refuses to run away like a coward. Natsu takes a step forward and punches the culprit on his stomach sending him flying towards the wall. He approaches his senior with a calm and steady step. When he reaches him, he sees him shivering badly in fear. Natsu crouches so he can be at the same eye-level as the frightened senior and holds onto his throat tightly.

Natsu's voice carries so much hatred and anger, "What's wrong with being different?"

Natsu's captive is unable to answer, not only is the tight hold preventing him from voicing his thoughts but the glare that olive eyes send his way made him lose his voice from fright. Seeing that no answer comes, Natsu decides to hold on tighter and pushes his senior back until he collides harshly with concrete wall. The boy starts choking from the lack of air and isn't that far from passing-out. Natsu doesn't give a damn about that, he could die for all he cares.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Loke runs to the the injured student that is unconscious to tend to him while Gray runs towards Natsu. He places a gentle hand on his shoulder and waits patiently for Natsu to turn his head slowly and face him without releasing his hold on the bully. He tenses a bit when he sees the mix of raw emotions swirling freely in the green eyes he always loved. He is able to sense the grief and sorrow that these eyes are emanating but he doesn't know the reason behind such dark emotions. Gray tries to calm his friend down by relaxing and giving him a soft smile.

Natsu releases the senior's throat and stands up slowly, again, his anxiousness has amplified from this morning and he suddenly feels extremely nauseous, he needs to get out. He has to leave now before he regrets it. Not trusting his voice, he speaks in a whisper, "Thanks Gray, I feel better, you can let go of my shoulder now."

Gray can feel the lie behind those words but complies to his friend's request and lets go of him. He keeps his worried gaze on Natsu even when he heads to the door of the classroom. When Natsu reaches the door frame, teachers come running from the end of the hallway towards the room he was in. He doesn't recognize any of them and he doesn't care either, all he wants right now is to leave. He needs to breathe some fresh air immediately. Natsu resumes his walking, ignoring the screams teachers send his way, for him to come back. He isn't looking up so he ends up bumping into a solid body. When he glances up, he sees Laxus standing in front of him with an angry expression. The expression on Laxus's face transforms from angered to extremely worried when he sees the usually bright olive eyes dark and lifeless. Seeing that his older brother hasn't said or done anything, Natsu continues his way outside as if nothing happened.

Staring as the younger boy walks away, Laxus whispers to himself, "First the classroom and now this?"

Laxus knows that he should have cut-off this morning's conversation with Wendy and Cobra as soon as it was opened. He knew it would invade Natsu's thoughts and cause him to act weirdly, but now it was too late to regret. In fact, it's a good thing the others already left for school back then, it would have been even more complicated if Gajeel and the two kids were present as well…

Gray stares at the spot where Natsu was standing in front of the leader of the bullies wondering why Natsu is acting this way. Knowing that he won't get answers by standing around doing nothing he decides to help Loke tend to the injured lost magic user.


	5. Bargain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapy and I'm so so so so so so sorry for the lateness, I had mid-terms (still do in fact) and hope that the length of this chapter will make-up for it! Hope you enjoy and don't get disappointed ^^
> 
> And special thanks to MiyuTanemura for beta-ing this chapter as well :D

Gray and Loke were standing outside the infirmary waving goodbye to the nurse who thanked them when they brought the young injured girl. The boys had trouble believing their ears when the nurse told them that the victim was a girl, not to mention the many injuries that would definitely leave scars on the child. Gray was astonished as such brutality, and to a young girl to boost! Also, he had a feeling that he knew the girl from somewhere but he couldn't put his finger on it. She had a small stature and her hair was short and pink, just like Natsu's but a shade darker.

Thinking about his rival made Gray's thoughts go back to what happened earlier during the day. It was the first time he saw Natsu act or even look like that…Usually, he hid his feelings behind a very gorgeous smile - a smile that was used to conceal how he's really feeling from his friends. With time though, Gray has been able to decipher some minor, but very important, details behind the mask Natsu wears daily. Natsu would be smiling brightly, his olive eyes would gleam strongly – giving the effect of a glittering emerald under the light, and last but not least, his pink strands would fall over his face giving him a few more feminine traits. Yet, deep inside the mesmerizing eyes, a darker emotion dwells. Gray would be able to see some sort of sadness and grief behind the curtains of joy that were placed on the expressive eyes by its owner on purpose. It's during these moments that the ice mage would realize that not everyone reveals their true selves; many people surrounding him hide something they don't want others to know. It just never occurred to him that Natsu is one of these people. He seems so happy and excited about everything that anyone would be fouled by his act, although this reminds him of something his mother used to tell him all the time,

" _Sometimes, the one who smiles the most is the one that, ironically, is suffering the most. These types of people try to hide their pain and sorrow by smiling. Next thing you know, you'd find-out that they actually cry behind closed doors and that they fight battles nobody knows about. All it takes is for a person to put on a very nice smile so that they can hide a broken soul, and no one would ever notice how badly that person is falling apart. So, Gray, make sure to learn the difference between a genuine and a fake smile. You never know, when you grow-up, baby boy, you might be the reason a fake smile transforms into a real one, capiche?_ "

This small memory flash made Gray give a soft sigh; he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before taking off to search for his friend while screaming for Loke to head to class before him. He was unaware that the said boy was too busy flirting with the nurse to hear him.

Gray ran to the first place that came to mind- the rooftop. Whenever Gray and the others weren't feeling like socializing, they would hide there. It was like a sort of hide-out that came in handy when one of them needed their private space. On his way to the roof, Gray halted in front of one of the huge windows that were framed with meaningful designs from the ancient times when he saw a blob of pink in the courtyard. Having nothing to lose, he ran outside to find that it was, indeed, his friends' head that he saw from the third floor.

* * *

Natsu is able to smell the scent of his rival as soon as said rival stepped out of the school building, but he is in no mood to talk or fight so he just goes ahead and _tries_ to ignore him. The strong smell of balsam and pine trees remind Natsu of winter and soothes him to no end. It is surprising to him how much this mix of scents makes him feel appeased and relaxed, it makes all the tension he feels disappear just like _that_ , but what displeases him the most about it is that this comforting scent comes from his oh-so-great rival. He can't understand why Gray's smell has this kind of effect on him and at the present he doesn't care about that, all that matters is that it makes him feel safe. After all, that's what he needs - to feel safe.

* * *

When Gray reaches Natsu, he finds him sitting on a bench under a chestnut tree that is close to the school's entrance. Natsu's eyes are closed, his head is tilted up towards the sky, his hands are tucked in his pants' pockets and his legs are spread in front of him. Gray decides to join him on the other side of the bench and leans forward propping his arms on his knees.

Natsu has a hard time ignoring Gray, or to be more precise, it is difficult for him to ignore the smell that does wonders on him. At this point, Natsu gives up trying to ignore the ice mage, _there's no denying that his smell is very calming now_... he thought. He opened his eyelids when he felt someone's palm on his forehead. Natsu's eyes went to find the hands' owner and met dark eyes in the process, "You look paler than usual, are you sure you're fine?"

Natsu starred at his interlocutor for a few seconds before closing his eyes again and humming as an answer.

Gray sighed softly and retrieved his hand while contemplating the silent boy in front of him, "Natsu," he waited until said boy looked back at him to continue, "If there's anything wrong you can always tell me. Also, don't _ever_ tell me you're fine when you're obviously not."

In a low voice Natsu said, "You wouldn't understand even if I told you about it. Besides, since when do you care about me and how I feel? Last time I checked, we weren't this close."

Gray gave out a sigh before saying, "First of all, how would you know that I wouldn't understand? You'd be surprised to know that I'm no idiot. In fact, people think that I'm a cold-hearted person who doesn't feel any sort of empathy towards others, but I do! I just don't like to show it to other people, that's it! As for your other question…" he took a deep breath while massaging his temple with his right hand, "Again, I may not show it but I care about you a lot. Actually, I care more about you than I do about Erza, Loke and Lucy. I'm not saying that I _don't_ care about them it's just that if I were in a situation where I had to choose between you and them, then I'd choose you!"

Natsu's eyes were stuck on the raven head as if they were enthralled by him. He couldn't understand what he was feeling right now. It is as if he was shot with a spell. A warm feeling spread through Natsu's body, it wasn't the type of warm that he was used to feel from his magic – no – it was something even deeper than that. Scared to be betrayed by his voice, Natsu spoke in a whisper, "I thought you hated me…I thought you couldn't tolerate seeing me…that you wanted me to disappear from your life…"

"What?! Who said that? Have I ever told you that?" Bewilderment was written all over Gray's face.

"No…but we always fight. And…," Natsu lifted his eyes to the sky, "And by always I mean always, I never spent a second with you without fighting. Isn't that indication enough that you don't like me or anything related to me?"

Gray gave another sigh, he has been sighing a lot lately, "Look here you idiot, I might fight with you _most_ of the time but that doesn't mean that I don't like you. I actually find it fun, that's why I fight with you a lot, and last _I_ checked, we were best friends! Aren't we?"

A soft smile spread itself on Natsu's lips and his green eyes started watering but he was able to restrain himself from crying by closing his eyelids. Softly, almost in a whisper, Natsu replied, "Yeah. We're best friends."

Seeing the pink head smile like that made Gray feel happy, he slapped the back of his friend's head and gave him a huge smile. "What's wrong with you and slapping my head?" Natsu said amused.

"It's your fault for saying stupid stuff such as me hating you, and for you to not know that I actually consider you my best friend, idiot! Besides, if I were to be honest," Gray scratched the back of his head, "I think I like you."

Saying that Natsu was astonished would be an understatement. "Eh?"

"Yeah…um…lately I've been feeling weird around you and it's not the displeasing kind of weird but the kind that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and wow! I'm talking like a girl in love, that's just creepy! Ok and now I'm rambling about nothing, but just to make sure you understand what I mean, I actually meant the _like-like_ not the simple friendship kind of like. Well, that's what I think…"

"You think?"

"Yeah I think…I'm not really sure about my feelings, I mean come on! Put yourself in my shoes and see if discovering that you fell for your best friend is a fun thing, and it's a _boy_ too!"

"Eh? You don't want to fall for me because I'm a boy?"

"No not really, I believe in the freedom to love whoever and whatever you want. It's just my first time feeling like that for a boy…" Gray turned his head away from Natsu and blushed.

"So it's not because it's me that you're unsure of what to feel?"

"No, I'm actually happy it's you and not someone else…" Gray looked back at Natsu, and saw him smiling warmly at his words.

"Thanks Gray. That's actually the _best_ thing I've ever heard through my _whole_ life!" He grinned, "Ah! But…um…it's kind of sudden and all and…um…it's not that I'm not interested in you or anything, I mean _you_ 're not the problem, it's just that I'm not really ready to get into a relationship yet and…," Natsu's voice got lower at his last words.

Gray chuckled at Natsu's rambling and said, "You know I wasn't actually expecting us to start a relationship between us from the get-go, but, hey, it would be nice if we went out together, _just_ the two of us, from time to time!"

"You mean going on dates?" says Natsu innocently.

Gray has a small blush on his cheeks, "Yeah dates."

"Sure. I don't mind."

"Yes I know it's a stupid idea and all but it was just a suggestion," Gray's eyes grow wide, "Wait! What?! You don't mind?"

A small chuckle comes out of Natsu, "Yup! I don't mind, ice princess."

"Hey! I thought you didn't like fighting, flame-brain!"

"Insulting you is nothing close to fighting, Popsicle breath!"

"That's how _our_ fights usually start, squinty eyes!"

Natsu laughs softly at that, "Don't worry, droopy eyes, right now I don't have the energy to fight."

"Oh yeah! You reminded me, are you alright, you were pale and you're actually still pale right now."

"You won't believe me if I said I was feeling fine would you?"

"Not one bit…I told you before, I'm no idiot. Besides, you look horrible right now."

"Is that something you'd say to someone you just confessed to?"

"I say whatever I want, you idiotic flame-brain."

"Yeah, yeah."

"So? You still haven't answered my question."

"It's nothing really, I had a very small fever in the morning and well here I am now…"

"Fevers are the beginning of all illness."

Natsu gives him a blank look, "Shit, you sounded just like my brother right now."

"You have a brother?!"

Natsu clasps his hands over his mouth before saying, "Oh fuck! I wasn't supposed to reveal that! Erase it! Take it out of your memories now!"

"What the hell Natsu? Why do you need to hide that you have a brother? That's just plain weird!"

Fear is what is written on Natsu's face, "Um…Natsu what's wrong?" says Gray worriedly.

"He's gonna kill me! Oh my god! He's gonna kill me!" Natsu's voice is trembling slightly.

"Helloooo," Gray waves his hand in front of the pink head, "Natsu what's wrong?"

Said boy latches onto Gray and gives him begging eyes, "Please Gray I'm begging you here! Please don't tell anyone about this! _Please_!"

"Natsu calm down! I have no idea what you're talking about! Just calm yourself first then explain!"

Natsu takes a deep breath and then sits straight, "Ok, so here's the thing, before I say anything, I'm trusting you here with something very important go it?"

"Uuuuh…okaaay…"

Natsu takes another breath and continues, "So I live with a bunch of idiots that I call siblings, there are three older than me and three younger. So in other words, I'm the middle child here. Anyways, you already know two of them."

"Really? Who are they?" Gray is surprised by such information.

"Let me continue first. As I was saying, you know two of them and I'm sure you've heard of rumors about two other ones. So," Natsu clears his throat, "Have you ever heard of Gajeel, Cobra, Wendy and Laxus?"

"Gajeel as in the guy who looks like a pin cushion and goes under the name of black steel in Phantom Lord High?"

"The one and only." Natsu smiles while holding a finger out in front of his face.

"And Cobra as in that's actually his nickname not his real name and goes to Crime Sorciere High?"

"Yeah, but how'd you know that?"

"Don't mind the small details, to continue, when you mentioned Wendy and Laxus…you meant _the_ Wendy and Laxus right?"

"Bingo! The Laxus from our physics class and the Wendy that was eating lunch with us today."

Gray laughs so hard that he falls from the bench and starts rolling on the ground. "Wow Natsu, I knew you were an idiot but I never thought you'd be delusional!"

A tick mark forms on Natsu's head, "Who're you calling delusional you pervert?"

"Can you blame me? Who would believe that!"

"You tell me! Have I ever lied to you? Well if you try to ignore the lies that served to prank you…"

"Okay fine you got me there, but it's still hard to believe…I mean you guys act as if you don't know each other!"

"That's because we're trying to hide that we're family."

"Why?"

Natsu sighs, _now that he knows all this, there's no harm on telling him more right?_

"Look here, _I_ can't take the decision of telling you the reason but if you head home with me maybe Laxus would."

"Really? Then I'm so going back home with you!"

Natsu chuckles at that and stills when a thought occurs to him, "Wait! I take that back! We'll stay after school and talk to him in his desk here…If we go back home we might get obliterated on sight!"

"Obliterated, really?"

"Yes! Remember…chemistry lab report…negative hundred…all that plus Laxus equals my death so yeaaah…"

"Um…okay then staying after school it is."

"Besides the fact that Gajeel and Cobra would kill me for telling you…Laxus alone is enough…"

"Yeah…"

* * *

When the school emptied of its students and the teachers settled on their desks to start correcting all type of assignments, Natsu and Gray entered the building. During the time where classes were still being held, the duo moved from the bench to the backyard of the school so that they can avoid meeting their friends. Explaining to them why they skipped the second half of the day would have been a pain in the ass, especially to the student council president Erza Scarlet. Not only would she not spare them but she would not leave them alone until they tell her why they missed it, and none of them was keen on being interrogated about their absence. Natsu finds it risky enough to have Gray know about his family issues, adding the rest of the group of friends in on the secret would just add to more trouble and confusion from their part. As for Gray, he gave his promise to not reveal anything about the matter and his pride and faithfulness towards his friend would never allow him to break such an important promise.

The boys reached the room where Laxus's desk was placed in and knocked at the door. They didn't wait long before Freed, the spell-casting teacher, showed up behind the unlocked door.

Surprise etched on his features when he saw who bothered them during their corrections, "Gray and Natsu?! What a surprise! What are you guys still doing at school?"

With his inhuman hearing, Laxus was able to perceive the question that was asked and it left him stunned. Natsu presented himself to a teacher's desk and after school to boot! The blond man turned to stare at the sky from the window- checking if by any chance there's an apocalypse on its way to bury them all underground. But there was none which made Laxus's astonishment triple. His attention was once again lured to the conversation occurring at the entrance of the room when he heard Gray reply.

"We were wondering if it was possible for us to talk to Mister Laxus."

"Laxus? Oh! Is he also your teacher? Today is just so full of surprises! Wait here, I'll go tell him you need to see him." Freed went to do what he said, not knowing that the bulky blond man already heard the whole conversation with disbelief.

Waiting for Laxus to show-up, Gray leaned on the door frame while Natsu bounced himself on his heels. Whispering, Gray told Natsu, "I still can't believe you guys are related…you look nothing alike!" The surprise was evident in his voice.

"So? You and Lyon are brothers and I don't see the resemblance."

"I'll hand you that one," said Gray with a nod.

Natsu chuckled and their conversation got interrupted by the teacher that both boys stayed after school to meet, "The end of the world must be near if both of you are asking for me, or any teacher for that matter, when it's not even school hours!"

Irritation drew itself on the fire mage's face, "What's wrong with all of you? Assuming that we can't be proper students and go ask for our teachers, isn't that just you teacher's way to degrade from a student's self-esteem or something?"

"Self-esteem? I was unaware that you had such an enriched dictionary," Laxus pointed his finger at his temple, "in your less than average brain, _brat_."

A tick mark formed on Natsu's head and he would have retorted back if it weren't for the fact that he came to discuss something important with the annoying man standing in front of him. Gray sensed the irritation that was coming out of his friend and tried to change the course of things by speaking, "So yeah…Us brats need to talk to you and in a more private space so find us one or follow us outside. Your pick! And before you say anything more insulting, you should know that it's very important so, yeah…"

Laxus eyed them suspiciously and sighed before yelling inside the room he was standing in, "I'm leaving for a bit, take care of things for me during my absence Freed, Bickslow!"

A united "Ok!" was heard before he gave back his attention to the boys standing in front of him. He had a feeling that whatever they needed to tell him was not something good, and Natsu's worried look just made the feeling grow more.

They decided to go outside, to the same bench the younger boys were having a discussion on earlier in the evening. Laxus sat down while the two others decided to stay standing- like that if he decides to go on a rampage by the news they'll give him, they'd have a head start by running away. The blond man stayed silent and waited for them to start talking.

Natsu sighed, "No reason for me to beat around the bush, so here we go…," he took a very deep breath before continuing, "LaxusIkindatoldGrayaboutourfamily!" His words were jumbled up together and Laxus was unable to understand a thing from what was uttered.

"Uh…Mind repeating that Natsu…," Laxus held a confused look.

Said boy tried again, but he was overreacting, he couldn't form the words properly so Gray took it upon himself to tell Laxus what they came for, "What flame-brain here," he pointed his thumb at Natsu, "was trying to say was that I know about the relation you have with him and I also know about Wendy. In case I sounded too unclear, I know that you guys are siblings."

Natsu's face paled immensely and his lips formed a thin line. The expression Laxus was holding would have been very hilarious. During any other day, Natsu would have been cramping on the floor from the hilarity behind the utter shock Laxus was expressing, but right now isn't any other day, his older brother's face made him inapt of making any type of noise.

With a dark and grim voice, Laxus spoke, " _Natsu?_ "

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, but I blurted it out by accident and I wasn't in my right mind and I don't know I just…I don't know…," Natsu gripped his pants on his sides, clenched his teeth tightly and shut his eyes closed, "I'm sorry." He said the last part so quietly that Laxus would have missed it if it weren't for his draconic ears. Hearing the honesty behind those words made Laxus calm down and think rationally again.

When no retort or punch came to him, Natsu slightly opened one of his eyelids and saw Laxus leaning back on the bench, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"U-Um…Laxus?"

"I knew this would happen one day…," he replaced his hand on his lap, "but I expected Sting to be the one that will reveal it you know? ... Never in the least had I thought that it would be you…"

"I'm sorry…," guilt was apparent on the pink head's face.

"It's fine. We just got to make sure that this brat," he nodded towards Gray, "keeps his mouth shut about it. Besides… I know you weren't feeling all that great today so yeah…"

Gray took this as a chance to intervene, "About that, I already promised Natsu that I won't let my mouth loose, _but_ I would like to know why be so secretive?"

Natsu flinched at the question and kept his gaze on the floor while Laxus contemplated his options. He can easily tell Gray and knowing him from all the years he was a student in Fairy Tail High, Laxus was sure he would never break a promise. Besides, killing him if he reveals anything about the matter would be done without difficulty. In addition to that, worrying about what the others would think is futile. Laxus doesn't give a damn about Cobra's and Gajeel's opinions, the kids are too stupid to understand what's being asked of them-well Sting is, Wendy would actually be very delighted to have an addition in on the secret and finally, Natsu doesn't seem to care and only brought him Gray so that he won't make the ultimate decision himself and get the others enraged over stupidities.

Laxus let out an aggravated sigh. "I'll tell you, but it won't be fair if you only get to get something out of it, so let's bargain information instead."

"Anything!" Gray said excited to finally know why Natsu's family was acting like a secret organization.

"The information I'm about to leak is of grand importance, so giving it to you ain't an easy task for me and the other members won't be happy to know that I gave it to you easily… well…except for Wendy and Natsu…," he mumbled the last part under his breath and continued with his previous sentence, "anyways, what I mean is that if you want me to tell you the one thing that we're trying to hide from society then you should give us something of equivalent value. And, I don't mean money or any junk of that sort, I want valuable information regarding _you_. Something _you_ 're trying hard to hide from the others. Even if it's the most stupid thing ever, got it?"

Gray stood there weighting his options before being interrupted by Natsu who told him with a sad expression, "You don't really need to think twice about it you know? However way you see it, you're the one getting the better part of the deal, and I'll tell you right now, _whatever_ piece of information you'll give us, it won't be worse than the one we'll give you…"

This perked Gray's curiosity even more, particularly since he was unable to imagine what kind of secret would make Natsu show such a sorrowful expression, so he found himself nodding to the deal in agreement, "Sounds fair," he said.

At that, Laxus dropped the bomb without any form of warning in front of the raven head, "We're dragon-slayers." He disclosed it in a way that gave the impression that he was uninterested and that he was talking about the Halloween party occurring next week, his monotone voice didn't help to make it feel more serious either. After all, he just exposed his and his family's true nature - _monsters_.

An awkward silence fell on the group of three, feelings of anxiety were invading the younger boys as they felt the pressure to speak growing but are unsure of what to say next. Gray thought that he heard wrong so he turned to face the boy he confessed to in the mid-afternoon to confirm Laxus's words, seeing his friend with an unnaturally serious face, made Gray realize that his ears weren't playing tricks on him.

To show his surprise, Gray was only able to utter an "Oh fuck!"

Natsu was devastated, he didn't want to lose his friendship with Gray over something as stupid as being a type of magic user that is segregated from _all_ humans. He wanted to keep this friendship, especially after what Gray told him earlier when they were alone in this same spot he was standing on right now. That's why Gray's next words _almost_ made him cry of joy. Laxus saw the hidden tears in his younger brother's eyes and gave a microscopic smile to that.

"You _were_ right Natsu! My secret is nothing as grave as yours! Man! I get why you're all very _reserved_ about it… It must be a pain in the ass to hide such a thing."

The pink head couldn't hold it anymore, he crouched down on the floor and his body started shaking. He was holding onto his stomach and his head was bent on his knees. A small noise came out of his mouth and it instantly transformed into loud laughter that was the result of the huge relief he felt. Gray had a small grin on his lips and Laxus's smile widened. He felt more than relieved at Gray's reaction and he was grateful for it, not that he'll ever show it.

The raven head waited for Natsu to calm down and control his laughter so that he could do his part of the deal.

"My turn now, it's just like you said, it's nothing special, well… not to you guys anyways, but most people would freak-out if they ever discover about it so can I ask you as well to keep it between us? Oh! But you can tell Wendy and the others, no problem with that!"

This got the brothers' attention and they gave a small nod to affirm that whatever will be told will stay between them. At that, Gray took a deep breath and continued his earlier rambling, "as I said, it's nothing as major as yours, but-"

A united shout interrupted him, "Will you _just_ tell us already you ice _brat_?" Laxus used a little bit of force in his voice when he called Gray a brat, as for Natsu, he may have insulted the ice mage, but it was still void of any heat or anger.

"Okay, okay!" Gray raised both his hands in surrender, "Sheesh! No wonder you're siblings, you both have zero patience!" A death glare from Laxus and Gray decided to get-on with it; he cleared his throat and finally unveiled his secret, "I'm a devil-slayer…as in, a _very_ strong lost-magic user."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure I've mentioned it before, but this fic is also available in fanfiction.net :)
> 
> and constructive criticism is welcomed ^^ oh yeah! and if you have any ideas or things you'd like to see in this fic please do tell (I don't bite) ;) I will try my best to include it :p and last but not least, what do you think of mpreg? as in should I put mpreg at the end of the fic or not?
> 
> Thanks for reading *kneels*


	6. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there guys ^^
> 
> I just wanted to thank everyone for even thinking of reading this fic and when I saw the Kudos and comments I was extremely happy :D
> 
> so THANK YOU SO MUCH m(_ _)m
> 
> also, this chapter has not been beta-ed so I'm really sorry for any errors you find in your way!
> 
> Please enjoy *grins*

Natsu was standing in front of the counter in the kitchen slicing the tomatoes that would be mixed in the salad. He was forced to cook supper tonight because of the unexpected guest that stood next to him surprised by what he was seeing. Gray couldn't believe his eyes- in front of him a table was dressed with a _very_ fancy meal. He was observing Natsu all the time while the latter was cooking. It stunned him how Natsu was comfortable around the kitchen- he seemed very confident in his movements and actions. Although the way the pink head steered in the kitchen was surprising in itself, the smile that was held by said boy was what made Gray stand astonished from the sight. It was the type of smile a young boy would hold on the day of Christmas after opening his presents to discover that it was the toys he has been asking for during a long time over the past year.

Natsu finished preparing the salad and turned to place the last item on the large table by the window of the dining room. It was laid for eight people with plates, cups, cutlery, bread and the food that was prepared by the fire mage. When he placed the salad somewhere in the middle of the table, he yelled for the others that diner was ready.

Gray heard foot-steps coming from the magnificent stairs that led to the second floor before hearing a young female voice, "Oh my god! Natsu-nii are you the one who cooked tonight?"

Natsu scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly at Wendy, "Yeah…Laxus forced me to…"

She was about to reply to her brother when she saw the raven head standing next to him. Her movements were halted mid-way on the stairs and her eyes got wider and wider by the second.

"G-Gray-s-san?" She directed her gaze to Natsu while pointing her finger at Gray, "N-Natsu-nii what is he doing here?"

Natsu sighed, "Wendy, it's not polite to point your finger at others. Well…at least not to those older than you."

"A-ah! S-Sorry, I just…it's just…," she replaced her hand to her side.

"I know, come sit down for now, we'll explain later. Actually, I'll give Laxus the honor of explaining, since it will be a pain in the ass…"

"Oh, okay," said Wendy. "I thought you let Gray-san in without telling Laxus-san about it."

"My life is very dear to me so I wouldn't dare, and you can drop the _sans_ in front him," replied Natsu while pointing his thumb at Gray.

This got Wendy's attention even more and surprise etched itself on her features, "No way! You don't mean…?"

"Yup! It means exactly what it means."

"No way!"

"Yes way!" said Natsu sarcastically, "Now sit down."

Wendy complied with his command and sat at the corner of the right side of the table. Soon after, the other occupants of the mansion showed up and gave the raven head a scowl showing their mistrust when they saw him-with the exception of Sting who was oblivious to what was going on. Gray started to feel uneasy- he didn't know what to do or say, so he decided to keep his distance from the dining table. Realizing this, Natsu joined him and pulled him to the kitchen.

"They don't bite you know? Well they won't if you don't piss them off…" said Natsu.

"I am aware of that, it's just…how should I put it, it's just kind of awkward…You saw how Wendy reacted and she _knows_ me, imagine how the others would show their stupor!" exclaimed Gray.

"I don't blame you actually, but trust me alright? If anything happens I'll be there to save the day yeah?"

Gray gave an aggravated sigh and smiled, "Ok but make it so I sit between you and Wendy, imagine how uncomfortable it will be if I sat next to the others…"

Natsu grinned, "Deal!"

"I mean it, you and Wendy, _not_ Laxus! _You_ and _Wendy_ ok?" said Gray with persistence.

Natsu gave him a confused look before saying, "Why? Is something bothering you about Laxus?"

"He made me come here is there anything more to say?"

Natsu had to admit that the events that occurred a few hours ago made him extenuated. The first thing he was planning to do when he got home was to sleep as soon as he reached his room, but Laxus's reaction towards Gray's revelation made his plans evaporate into thin air. When the raven head revealed that he was a devil-slayer, Natsu thought he was hearing wrong- it happens and it wouldn't be the first time, just like that one time where Cobra told him that his art homework was very _original_ and he misunderstood it for very _orange_. Anyways, he tended to mishear some words and he thought that this time it was the same and so, the first thing he said after hearing the truth was "Can you please repeat that? I think I heard something else…"

Gray gladly complied and said, "I, Gray Fullbuster, am a devil-slayer."

Gray gave an amused look to his friend when he saw the different sets of emotions that were expressed on his face. The unexpected news made Natsu feel astonishment, which lasted a few seconds before transforming into shock and then followed by a hint of curiosity. Wrinkles of surprise appeared on his forehead, his eyes widened and his mouth opened but no word seemed to come out of it- causing his lips to move like a fish mouth. On the other hand, Laxus made it look like he hasn't heard anything big. His arms were folded across his chest and his face was holding a blank expression. The only thing that showed his surprise to Gray's nature was the words he got out after managing to get out of the shock phase.

"Bloody hell! That's some secret you've got there! I never thought it'd be this! I thought you'd tell us something stupid such as your love interest or how you enjoy masturbating before going to sleep or maybe the amount of time you spend in a bar at night behind your parents' back or _anything_ amounting to that level of information!" Laxus inhaled before going on, "But man, I never thought you'd come out as a devil-slayer! Seems like we ended up with a fair bargain, ain't that right Natsu?" He turned his head towards said boy and raised an eyebrow when he saw him still frozen from the shock of the bombshell that the ice mage threw at them. Laxus stood up and hit the palm of his hands on his younger brother's cheeks causing Gray to cringe from the sound that echoed because of the hard slap.

"What the fuck Laxus? That freakin' hurt!" Yelled Natsu. He caressed his, now, bruised cheeks and glared at his older brother.

"It's your fault, I was talking to you and you didn't answer so I thought that I would help you come back to earth by slapping you or something," said Laxus half-heartedly.

"You're the worst! I thought older brothers are supposed to be very caring to their younger siblings but you and that shitty Cobra are nothing like that," Natsu rubbed his soar cheeks before continuing, "you could've shook me, now my cheeks are gonna turn red. I'll look like a clown!"

Laxus waved his right hand as if to dismiss Natsu's words, "Yes, yes. Now stop crying like a child and let's go back to the subject at hand." When he turned to face Gray he didn't find him. He looked right, then left and then right again but to no avail. It was when he heard a weird sound coming from underneath him that he found the raven head on the floor. Gray had his legs bent, his back leaning forward and his head lowered on his knees-he was holding his hands on his mouth to prevent his laughter from coming out.

"Mind telling us what is so amusing in this holy mess?"

Gray was startled and he stood up from his position while stretching his aching muscles, "N-Nothing! It's just Natsu…His reaction was very hilarious, I should've taken a picture, it's not every day that you see this hyper bundle of joy get frozen still from shock!"

"Hate to agree with you but you're right! This is a very rare occurrence, I should've left him like that, maybe then we would've had peace for once at home." Laxus had his chin poised on the palm of his hand.

"He's hyperactive even at home?"

"That doesn't even describe the destruction that Natsu and the others cause every night! Not to mention the week-ends…Those are the worst! They're at home the whole day! Imagine how much destruction that will end up resulting to!"

"Damn! Sounds like fun!"

"Fun my ass, see if I'll ever pay to repair the machinery in the house ever again and then come and tell me fun!" replied Laxus while glaring at the horizon.

"You bastards still realize that I'm still here right?" said Natsu irritated.

Gray chuckled, "I'm well aware of that Natsu. It's just that I've never heard of your life out of school so kinda got me interested…"

Natsu gave him a half-hearted glare, "Yeah? Well I don't see you talk about yourself either!"

"Gray Fullbuster, 19 years old, started school a year late. I have a brother whose age is the same and named Lyon Vastia. And, well, we're both adopted by Ur Milkovich who has a daughter whose age is, again, the same and goes under the name of Ultear Milkovich. We live in a small house somewhere out of town. There, you know the basic about me, now your turn."

Natsu did not expect that so he was a bit taken aback but he still answered, "U-Uh… Natsu Dragneel, 18 years old, as I told you before, I have a younger sister who is Wendy and five brothers. Um…we go to different schools as you can see and we also live in a house somewhere in that forest we meet in front of to head to school. As for parents, well, we don't have any, Laxus is the closest to a father figure we've had so far and that's just creepy so we think of him just as the eldest brother and that's pretty much all I can tell you now…"

"Well that's the most information about you that I've had since the 10 years I've known you in!" a grin formed on Gray's lips.

Natsu was not anticipating this kind of reaction from his rival…actually no…from the person who told him he loved him. He felt abashed-he was unable to give a reasonable answer to the statement Gray gave him-he stood there with a light dust of pink forming on the area below his eyes. To hide the embarrassment he felt, he tried to hide his face with his arm while clutching the other on his pants.

Laxus was amused by Natsu's reaction and perfectly hid the chuckle that was trying to come out of his mouth. He closed his eyes and had a warm smile on his face. The words that he formed next made the teenagers look at him, one with excitement clear on his face while the other couldn't believe what he heard.

"Why don't you come over and meet the other members of our family?"

"Are you serious Laxus? Won't the others complain? There is no way Cobra's gonna let it go!" shock clear in Natsu's voice.

On the other hand, Gray was really happy. Natsu swore he could see his eyes twinkle from the effervescency, "I'm in! I'm so in! Well to be honest I don't care about meeting the others more than I want to see where you live! This is going to be so cool! I can't wait! I hope you're not joking right now because you hooked me up already and I won't live it down until I get to see Natsu's room. He saw mine and he's been over countless times with Erza, now my turn! I wanna see!"

The bulky blond man could not hold in his laughter anymore, "There you go Natsu, you go back home with Gray. Besides, you were pale earlier so as a precaution I'd rather have someone _escort_ you home in case _something_ happens so up you go," he made a swift wave with his hand indicating for the boys to start heading to the dragon-slayer's mansion, "I'll come home after I'm done with the correction of you stupid brats' exams."

Natsu was still standing there like an idiot not knowing what to make of this unexpected situation. "Um…Laxus…"

"Oh and Natsu, he's your guest so cooking is your task tonight." With that, the physics teacher left to complete the task he left to-what he liked to call-his minions.

The pink head sighed. "That idiot…I ain't getting involved if a problem occurs from this at home…"

"I won't go if you don't want me to…" said Gray, disappointment clear in his voice.

"Nah! It's fine, to be honest, _I'm_ very happy to have a guest over and it's _my_ friend to boost. I'm sure Wendy would be delighted as well. Sting is an idiot so who cares, Rogue trusts Laxus's decisions and the other two bastards are none of my business. They can complain for all I care." He took a deep breath and pumped his fist in the air, "Now let's go! Destination _home_!"

Gray laughed at his friend's shenanigan and followed him to their destination.

This leads to the present time where Gray is having a conversation with Natsu in the kitchen.

"Yeah… I tried remembering what happened at school under that amazing tree in the schoolyard but I still can't seem to grasp why not sit next to Laxus?" said Natsu confused.

"I don't know, he may have seemed docile about all this," Gray spread his arms to emphasize his point, "but it seems to me that if anything would happen and your brothers would decide that me being here is the worst idea ever, Laxus will be their fists' prime target and I wouldn't want to be in the line of fire during that time…"

"What makes you say that Wendy and I wouldn't be targeted by their anger as well? Last I checked they were ruthless and heartless creatures that would beat anyone they don't like!"

"Come on Natsu, who would want to harm Wendy in any way? Have you seen how cute she is? She's like a cute little kitten, there's no way they'll harm a hair of hers in any way!"

"Oookaaay…And me? What's my role in all this?" Natsu was clearly lost.

"Oh! You're just the shield that'll protect me if anything happens," the raven head gave his friend a bright smile and made it seem like what he said was the most innocent and harmless thing ever.

"You ice _bastard_! Do I have to remind you that _you_ 're the one who confessed his _undying_ love to me this morning? Is this how you treat your love interests? Man you're the lowest!" said Natsu while glaring at his interlocutor.

Gray chuckled and patted the fire mage's head, "I said I love you but I did not say that I would change my way of interacting with you because of it. I'll keep acting as usual maybe a bit nicer who kno~ws…Besides, all's fair in love and war." Gray winked at Natsu and chuckled when the latter punched him lightly on his chest.

"Let's go back before they wonder what happened to us…Or more like me…"

"Yeah sure flame brain let's go."

* * *

 

Diner wasn't as awkward as Gray thought it would be- Natsu's family was trying to be patient about his presence. If he was asked, Gray would even say that it was the most enjoyable thing he has ever done in months, after all Natsu's siblings are very exceptional. They were a loud bunch even if they were busy stuffing themselves with food that was incredibly delicious. He still had a hard time processing the fact that the pink head is the one who prepared the variety of meals that were devoured by the table's occupants. To make it more unbelievable for him, it was all made from scratch-he would know he saw him prepare diner. It tasted even better than his mother's cooking and that's saying a lot since she works as a chef in one of the many restaurants she owns!

Back to the topic, Gray was having fun even though he did not utter a single word during the whole diner. He was observing the other teenagers sitting around the dining table. The young boy named Rogue was self-deprecating which was amusing at some point, Sting was a funny character as for Laxus-not surprisingly-was as sharp as a tack and did not take crap from any of his younger siblings. He was acting like the boss and Gray assumed he really was. Last but not least, Gajeel was seated directly across from him so it was hard for the ice mage to avoid seeing him, especially with his appearance. Gray wondered how he managed to tolerate being pierced almost all over his body-it seemed like a painful idea. To be fair, he was not the only one staring since Gray caught Gajeel looking at him a lot, and he couldn't figure out if it was because he was angry or uncomfortable. It was understandable after all, Gray was the first guest they have ever had in years if not the only one.

Once they were done with diner, Natsu made every single living human present in the mansion help clear the dishes-complaints were all ignored. He had Wendy's help with cleaning them and Gray kept him company but did not contribute in washing the dishes in any way. When that task was done, Natsu shooed Wendy to the living room where the others were and made Gray hold a stack of plates, forks and a container of vanilla ice cream. He motioned him to follow after taking the apple pie out of the closed oven. Gray helped the fire mage serve it and settled down with his plate on the sofa next to the pink head.

"Wow! This taste's amazing, Natsu. Where did you buy it from? I gotta make my mom taste it!" said Gray fascinated by how delicious the pie was.

Natsu shook his head and pointed at himself while holding his fork between his teeth and grinning at the other.

"You?" Gray sounded shocked and Natsu nodded, "Not only do you cook but you bake as well? And don't tell me this is from scratch too…" this time the raven head sounded more intrigued than shocked, "I would have never thought _you_ of all people to have any culinary skills! And not _any_ skills to boost, you're _amazing_ at it!"

"He's the best isn't he?" chirped Wendy.

Natsu's face was blending with his hair because of how pink his face turned from the embarrassment he felt-this is the first time he was complimented this much. His face turned back to its original color when he heard someone speak.

"It's literally the only thing he's good at, anything else and he's sucky at it!" Sting chimed in. At that, Natsu scowled and stood before trapping the young blond boy in a head lock causing the other to be out of breath.

"I'm not great am I? Why don't you tell me that when I stop making you lunch every day. And to make you feel even worse, I'll make sure that Rogue's lunch will be extravagant and you won't be allowed to touch it you _brat_."

"Ah! I'm sorry Natsu-nii it was a joke, a joke! Please forgive me! Don't stop making me lunch I'm begging you pleaaaase!" His face turned blue, "And can you please let go, I'm dying…"

Natsu huffed while releasing his hold on his younger brother's throat and settled back next to Gray who laughed lightly at the scene.

"That's fun and all but can someone start explaining why there's an intruder in our house?" a gruff voice said.

Natsu's eyes found the voice's owner and growled at him, "Way to go metal-face, you ruined the jovial mood."

Gajeel glared at him but sensing an ominous aura coming from the person sitting next him he stiffened. "If you start a fight here and now I'll make sure that my fist will be the last thing you see before passing out to the other side," hissed Laxus.

"S-Sir yes sir…" Gajeel crossed his arms to make it seem like Laxus's voice did not affect him but the sweat that was profusely coming out of him made it seem otherwise.

When Laxus was sure that everyone was calm enough to listen to him and that none of them-Gajeel-was going to go on a rampage, he started telling them everything that happened during the day. They were listening intently to him and did not cut him off at all, well, except for Sting who was giving stupid comments here and there.

"…And that's how Gray Fullbuster is present among us right now…" he finished telling them what he had to say and got up from his seat, "Now that you know don't you dare bother me or Natsu about it, by the way, he's technically in the same boat as us since he's a devil-slayer. With that I bid you farewell I'm going to sleep. I don't have a day off like the lot of you, I still have many corrections to do and I intend to catch as much z's as possible. Oh and Gray, you can stay over if you want but do call your family." Laxus yawned and waved them good night before leaving to his room.

The others were still sitting there with widened eyes and open mouths not believing that their older brother was so easily accepting of the situation. Though that was mostly Gajeel and Cobra's reaction, Wendy was having a wide grin on her lips and her eyes seemed like they were shining with stars all over them. She was really happy to have someone-out of the family- who she could act normally with and not be so secretive around. She stood and bounced to her room while giggling, leaving behind an amused Natsu and a confused Gray.

Gray pointed to where Wendy left and raised an eyebrow at Natsu who shook his head while smiling, "Don't bother. You'll only get a headache from thinking about it."

Snores were heard and everyone still present in the living room turned to the sound to find the younger boys leaning on each other and sleeping. It was past their bed-time after all, Cobra held the boys in an arm each and went to tuck them into bed, "I'll take them to their room," he stared at the ice mage, "I'll accept you but dare you show any sign of betrayal and I'll personally make sure your soul has left your body." Gray gulped at that and Cobra walked off.

"I'll trust Laxus and Natsu's judgments on you, but just like Cobra said, make sure you zip it about us. You don't seem like a bad guy so don't do anything that'll make me change this opinion on you. Oh and you're sleeping in Natsu's room. Good night." He nodded once and followed the others to his room.

"Your family's great, sound like the over-protective type but otherwise they're cool."

"They are, aren't they? I wouldn't change them for anything in the world," the words came out fondly out of Natsu's mouth. He sighed, got up and stretched his muscles. "Come on, let's go. We should get some sleep, I don't know about you but today was an extremely exhausting one and I can hear my bed calling for me."

Gray chuckled under his breath and said, "You're right, that's the best idea I've heard today." He rubbed his muscles at the crook of his neck and followed after Natsu to his bedroom. "By the way, tomorrow's week-end so don't you dare wake me before noon got that?"

Natsu grinned, "Lazy-ass."

"It's better than being a flame brain." There was no heat in his voice when he said it.

"Popsicle breath," replied Natsu in the same tone.

"Flame breath"

"Ice princess"

"Squinty eyes"

"Droopy eyes"

"Ash for brain"

"Stripper," Natsu pointed at Gray's chest which caused said boy to look down at his body.

"What? How?" The raven head looked frantically around for his clothes and found them hanging, behind him, on the rail of the stairs. He went to fetch them and put them back on before joining Natsu at the top of the stairs who was leaning on the rails of the second floor.

"I don't understand why this always happens, it's not like I want to walk nude in front of everyone!"

"Don't ask me and on purpose or not, it doesn't change the fact that you're a perverted icicle."

"At least I'm a sexy one don't you think?"

Natsu stared at Gray who was staring back at him with a wide smile on his face, "Sure you are, that may be why I haven't out-right declined your proposal of dating." The pink head grinned at his friend.

The ice mage stood at the top of the stairs dumbfounded. When he was able to make out the implication that was hidden behind those words his lips curved upwards and the sound of laughter came out of his mouth which was joined later on by the fire mage's own, followed by a united yell telling them to shut up and go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do tell what you thought in your comments ;) and thank you for reading :D  
> Hope you enjoyed :D


	7. Pain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there gu~ys! It's another update ya~y! :D
> 
> please enjoy guys and I hope I don't let you down TT~TT

The light spread throughout the city earlier than usual-it was an indication to a new and wonderful day. The sun was just barely peeking over the mountains to the east-far away from the city of Magnolia. The wind blew in from the north, across the variety of trees and plants that surrounded the dragon-slayer's mansion. It was quiet despite the howling of the wind that was heard in this early morning. The occupants were all asleep and were far from cracking an eye open…in the exception of one person.

In a particular room on the second floor, two male teenagers were laying under their covers. The dulled quality of light was filtered through dark red curtains causing a raven head to stir in his sleep-trying hard to avoid the morning light. It was a useless attempt; he was not used to having any form of light clearing his room-his curtains were black so it prevented the sunrays to infiltrate from the window. Not used to it, Gray decided to rouse from his sleeping state and opened his eyes to reveal a room that was not his. Since he was imposing, Gray insisted on sleeping on the couch that was present in his friend's room. Natsu had accepted reluctantly, well to be more precise, he seemed too unwell to argue about it and he just let it go. He must admit, it was not the best of options but for some reason, Natsu's couch was really comfortable so he had nothing to complain about.

After shifting to a better position on the couch, Gray checked the time on the digital clock and sighed loudly, "If Ur was here she'd faint from surprise…seven a.m. is too~ early~," he whined.

Gray got up and lumbered to Natsu's bed. When he reached it, he carefully sat on the side to prevent waking up the sleeping boy. Natsu was curling in on himself under the covers. His head was partially out and Gray was able to see his eyes-his thick pink eyelashes were really gorgeous. The fire mage looked so adorable curled like that, it was as if he was a kitten. Gray smiled warmly at the boy and then stretched his muscles. He then leaned towards Natsu and kissed him on the forehead.

Natsu felt something wet but warm touching him, he frowned and gave out a moan at the sensation but didn't bother to open his eyes. He heard someone chuckle beside him and caught a whiff of a scent he knew so well. Still with closed eyes, he quietly said "Bastard, taking advantage of me while I'm asleep."

"Never thought you'd be the type to talk in your sleep," muttered Gray.

The younger of the two huffed under his breath, "What time is it?"

"Around seven."

"Aren't you the one who said not to wake you up before noon?"

"Yeah but those curtain of yours are so thin. The light came in and woke me at such an ungodly hour," exclaimed the ice mage.

"They're not thin, you're sensible to the light is all…," Natsu slowly opened his eyelids revealing extremely beautiful emerald green orbs behind it, "So? Because it's my curtains' fault you decided that I should suffer with you and get up as well?" Sarcasm clear in his voice.

"That could be a reasonable reason but no, it's more like I'm sure that with nothing to do I'd get bored really fast …I wanted you up so that I wouldn't get to that point." Gray brushed the strands of pink hair that were falling on the green eyes and gave Natsu a soft smile.

Natsu felt warm from the ice mage's actions and smiled back at him before getting up in a sitting position. "Might as well get up then…Wanna shower first or eat breakfast?" He looked at the raven head slyly, "Or would you rather laze around in bed?"

Gray smirked and pushed the pink head on his back in the bed before leaning on top of him, "That's daring coming from you."

"Pervert." The fire mage lifted his arms to Gray's head and lightly ruffled his raven hair that was-as expected- really soft to the touch.

With a raised eyebrow the ice mage replied, "You don't seem to mind though."

"Sure, as long as your hands don't go too far down south then yeah, I don't care but…if your hands roam somewhere there, I'll make sure to rip your jewels off."

"Scary~" Gray let himself fall next to his love interest's right side and placed his arm around Natsu's shoulders, "But you know, I wouldn't dare do such things unless you give me permission to, so you have nothing to worry about."

Natsu turned over to face the raven head, "I know…And I still can't believe you love me. I'd never imagine _you_ of all people would ever confess to _me_." He was then pulled to the other's chest, "Well then, I'll make sure that you believe it." Natsu stared at the slightly taller teen and grinned before hugging him.

Gray grinned back and pecked the others' forehead a second time, "Now then, maybe you should go back to sleep, you still look pale from yesterday and your body is somewhat shaking, are you cold by any chance?"

"It's nothing, I'm just a bit tired," mumbled Natsu.

"Are you sure? Your face says otherwise…You're seriously starting to shake badly…" Gray started to worry.

"Really…I'm fine," the pink head's voice was getting lower.

"Natsu…I told you yesterday not to think of me as an idiot, I know you're not feeling well," bellowed the ice mage.

Said boy huffed under his breath and reluctantly said, "Sorry…I didn't mean to…Didn't wanna worry you for nothing…To be honest I don't know, I feel some sort of burn in my chest that keeps on coming and going since yesterday… I also feel dizzy and kinda lightheaded." Natsu's breathing was getting a bit uneven.

"You also sound very exhausted and your shaking body is starting to freak me out Natsu…Maybe I should go wake Laxus up…"

"No," the pink head tightly held onto Gray's shirt, "I don't want to bother him anymore, I'm fine…" his face scrunched up in pain.

"Natsu, you don't sound fine! Or even look fine for that matter!" Gray tried to reason with him, "The worst he'll do is take you to the hospital."

"Please," Natsu was unable to hide the pain he was feeling anymore and his voice sounded like he was suffering, "Gray I'm fi-" he was abruptly stopped by the other boy, "You're not fine Natsu! You-" he stopped mid-sentence, "Shit! There's blood coming out of your nose!" At this point, the raven head panicked and got up to call Laxus, ignoring the small whimper that came out of the younger boy.

When Gray reached the door, he heard a cough which was not the weird part, but the incessant coughs that followed was what made him freeze in the spot. He ran back to Natsu's side and rubbed the latter's back with worry etched on his face.

Natsu's hand flew to his mouth and the coughs made his chest go through more pain which made him clutch at it and he felt liquid draining into his windpipe. It resulted into a louder cough and more chest pain. Natsu turned around on his back and his fist tightened on his chest before giving another cough that caused some sort of liquid to come out of his mouth on his hand.

Gray's eyes were so wide it felt like they were going to fall out of their sockets. In front of him Natsu was clutching at his chest, but that was not what sacred him-it was the liquid that was leaking from in between the fingers that were in front of the fire mage's mouth. Blood! Natsu was coughing blood!

Gray backed away from the bed that was holding the coughing teen and with a shaking voice he said, "N-No… N-No…Nonononononononononononono!" He slowly shook his head and ran out of the room.

"LAXUUUUUS!" Gray banged at the door of the lightening dragon-slayer's room with so much force it would have broken if it was not for the fact that it was made out of very solid wood. "LAXUS WAKE THE FUCK UP!" He kept on knocking loudly, "OPEN THE FUCKING DAMN DOOR NOW!"

An enraged Laxus unlocked the door of his room and angrily glared at the person who bothered him in his sleep. "THE FU-" he started but when he saw the state Gray was in he stopped.

"N-Natsu…he…he's coughing b-blood!" a panicked Gray said.

The blond man stared wide-eyed at the boy in front him before glancing across at the open room that belonged to his younger brother. When his brain calmed down enough for him to think rationally he ran past the ice mage who collapsed on the floor to Natsu's room.

With their accurate and strong sense of hearing, the other dragon-slayers woke up from their slumbers and got out to see what the loud noise was all about. Wendy was the first to leave her room and she was slightly surprised to see Gray slumped on the floor and shaking. "Gray-san…What's wrong?"

The raven head turned his head to face the only girl present in the mansion, "N-Natsu…h-he…"

"Natsu? What's wrong with him? And I can smell blood are you alright?" confusion and worry were clear on her features.

Gray whipped the tears that somewhat found their way rolling on his cheeks and stood, "Wendy…You have healing magic right?" He got a nod as an answer. "Then please…please heal Natsu…"

Her confusion transformed to worry and asked him, "Why? What happened? Is he okay?"

Gray did not bother to explain, he lifted her up in his arms and took her to Natsu's room where they found Laxus frantically talking on the phone with the-presumably-emergency care.

"Please send an ambulance to this address _rapido-presto_ I'm begging you! My brother is coughing _blood_!" There was a pleading edge to his tone.

After Gray gently placed Wendy on the floor, she ran to her brothers' side and tears started forming in her eyes. Gray joined her and stared at Natsu whose breath was labored. He settled next to him and placed the palm of his hand on the pink head's forehead, on the spot he kissed twice before all of this happened.

Natsu was in so much pain he was not able to comprehend what was happening. He started feeling numb after a while and his coughing subsided but his chest was still causing him a lot pain. When he felt a hand on his forehead he directed his eyes towards the hand's owner and was not surprised to find it was Gray's. "G-Gray…," he flinched at how weak his voice sounded.

Softly Gray asked, "What's wrong?"

Natsu did not answer and tried to change his position but he was not even able of moving a single finger. He suddenly felt himself being lifted; he was grateful for it and leaned on his helper's chest without saying a single word. With heavy-lidded eyes, he chanced a glance around his room. He found all of his siblings present; _they must have come-in only a few seconds ago_ , he thought. At the corner of the room, Cobra and Gajeel were listening intently to Laxus who was still on the phone. On his bed, Wendy was sitting and trying hard not cry. He gave her a weak smile which made her crumble and let the tears out. Gently she made her way towards him and hugged him while sobbing. In front of the door stood the two youngest members of the family holding each other's hand. Rogue was trying hard to keep his tears at the rim of his eyes and Sting was frowning at his older brother. Feeling bad, Natsu averted his gaze from them and stared at the one holding him.

Gray's head was hanging low in a way that allowed his blue eyes to be covered by his bangs but at the same time allowed him to stare back at the exhausted green eyes. With a shaky and quiet voice he pleaded, "N-Natsu…Please don't die…"

Feeling awful Natsu spoke softly, "I won't…I promise," he lifted a shaky hand to Gray's face and clumsily wiped a falling tear away, "I s-still have things I want to do…A-And we still h-haven't tried going on a d-date." His slid down Gray's cheek and plopped on his side. The last thing Natsu could remember was smiling warmly at Gray before his consciousness slipped away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go guys! *grins* hope you weren't disappointed and that you enjoyed it! Do give me your thoughts by reviewing ;)
> 
> and I'd like to remind you that if there's something that you'd like to see in this fic then don't hesitate to tell me! I don't bite! really! I swear I don't! one thing though...this is a Gray x Natsu fic Seme!Gray and Uke!Natsu...that is the only thing I'm not willing to give up on :p


	8. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, surprise! here's another chapter ;) I was so into it for some reason and ended-up typing this chapter as well!!!  
> so here you go guys!
> 
> please do enjoy *grins*

Natsu woke in the hospital. He could tell he was in the hospital because there was so much beeping and because of the sickeningly antiseptic smell he unfortunately knew too well, and not to mention the white color that surrounded him from everywhere. With strained efforts he looked at his arm and saw a needle hooked to it with some strange fluid running through the tube that was attached to the needle. Natsu groaned softly before hearing a soft gasp.

“Natsu!”

Natsu turned his head with so much effort to the source of the voice. The sudden action made his ears buzz and it made him feel dizziness. He tried to lift his head up but it felt so heavy. He even tried to sit up but it hurt him too much and the fire mage does not have the strength to bear the pain. So he resigned to his fate and laid back on the huge fluffy pillow that was serving as some sort of leverage for his head. The sickly boy stared at the other person present in the room and that was sitting on a bench next to his hospital bed. That person was squeezing his hand tightly and seemed like he was straining to keep his tears from falling down on his cheeks. It somewhat made the dragon-slayer feel happy to know that someone out there was ready to cry for him, but at the same time, he felt sad the he was the reason that a melancholic expression was drawn on this person’s face.

“G-Gray?” a croaked voice whispered.

Gray had a hard time getting his voice out. He could not describe the feeling that he had when he saw his friend’s eyes opening slowly. He felt a huge sense of relief and was about to burst out crying when he saw his friend open his eyes, but he held himself, trying hard not to let the tears fall. When Natsu had lost consciousness, the ambulance had still not reached the mansion and because of that Gray took a fast and wise decision-he called his mother and urged her to come over. Ur had not questioned her son about the sudden call early in the morning and hurried over after Gajeel (who directed his attention to the ice mage when the latter took out his phone to call his mother) gave her their address-Gray failed to give it to her since the shock of the situation took its toll on him and he was not able to think straight anymore. Beside the ice mage, Wendy’s cries got louder and she refused to let go of her brother’s body even when Gajeel tried to tell her that they had to get Natsu downstairs for when Ur arrives. She was not the only one whose cries got frantic-under the door frame Sting fell on the floor and started sobbing while Rogue was full-out wailing and trying to wipe away the tears that cascaded down his cheeks but to no avail. Gray saw from the corner of his eyes Cobra moving away from where Laxus was standing to hold onto to his younger siblings in a comforting way. Meanwhile, Laxus rudely hanged-up the phone on the person who was on the other line after swearing profanities and joined Gray, Gajeel and Wendy next to Natsu who was white as a ghost. He tried to lift the pink head from the ice mage’s arms but they found him  holding tightly onto Gray’s shirt. Seeing this, the dragon-slayers trusted the responsibility of lifting their brother downstairs and in the car to the raven head who felt kind of special because of it but was still scared to lose his friend.

“You idiot, you scared the shit out of me,” spoke softly the ice mage.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” replied a softer voice.

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. Also, how’re you feeling, I should go and call the doctor shouldn’t I?”

“Calm down Gray, my heart monitor or I don’t know what will tell the doctors I woke-up, I bet they’re on their way already,” Natsu tenderly stared at the raven head and chuckled, “And yeah, I’d be lying if I said I’m fine, but don’t tell my family please…,” pleaded the fire mage while squeezing on the hand that was tucked in his.

“I won’t if you don’t lie about it to the doctor.”

“Deal, thanks Gray,” whispered softly the dragon-slayer.

At that, the door to Natsu’s hospital room opened to reveal an old pink haired doctor who came in to check on her patient and kind of politely made Gray leave. He softly pecked the fire mage’s forehead, smiled warmly and told him he would be waiting for the check-up to finish outside the room before doing what he was told.

* * *

 

It was the evening when the dragon-slayer’s family came over to see how their fire mage was doing. Gray has not moved since after the check-up from his friend’s side for even a second. The others' entrance in the room has not changed that-he refused to let go of his spot on the bench even when Wendy gave him puppy eyes. So as to not upset her more, he decided to make her sit on his lap and she did not complain about it.

Laxus was leaning on the wall facing his younger brother’s bed and had his arms crossed. He was really happy to know that Natsu has awoken and watching the others express their relief about it made him even happier. The scene in front of him made warmth flood through his chest. The front half of Natsu’s bed was lifted to an angle so that he can be lying in a somewhat sitting position. The bench on his left side was occupied by Gray who was holding Wendy and Rogue who found a spot next to his sister on the ice mage’s lap some way or the other. On the right side of the bed stood Gajeel and Cobra-Sting latched at Natsu’s neck as soon as they entered the room and he would not let go. Laxus must admit, if this was not a warm scene then what would be?

The lightening mage moved from the wall he was leaning on and went to detach Natsu from Sting’s desperate clutches. When he succeeded in doing so he told the rest of them that he was going back home and taking the younger ones with him. He ruffled the pink strands of his brother, lifted Rogue from Gray’s lap and left them after giving a proper goodbye.

“Ok, I know the hospital isn’t the right place to talk about this but it’s been bothering me since…Anyways, Laxus left so it’s interrogation time,” said Cobra in a half-amused, half-serious tone.

“I have an idea of what you wanna talk about but why’d ya want to leave Laxus out of the discussion?” asked Gajeel.

“’Cause I’m sure he doesn’t care about it as long as no harm’s done!”

“The fuck?! You’re against it?”

“Motherfucker! Don’t tell me you don’t care either?” exclaimed the poison dragon-slayer.

“Why should I? He’s free to do what he wants! You have no right to prevent it from him!”

Cobra waved his hand towards Natsu, “I have every right to! He’s my younger brother!”

“You suck!”

“I do.not. _suck_!” hissed Cobra, “I care for my younger siblings’ well-being!”

“If you were a great _older_ brother, then you’d let him do what he wants!”

They continued to argue while Natsu stared at them confused until the wheels turned in his head and he remembered the last thing he uttered before sliding his eyes shut to reveal a dark world. A dust of pink made its way on his cheeks. He turned his head away from his brothers to hide his blush from them but then realized that on the other side there was the ice mage who was gazing at him intently. His blush darkened at this but unlike with his brothers, he did not avert his eyes from him.

Gray smiled warmly at the fire mage and used the hand that was not holding Wendy to ruffle the pink messy hair in a caring way. Wendy (who was staring at them) grinned and swung her legs.

“Cobra-nii, Gajeel-nii is right! It’s not your place to make the choice, it’s Natsu-nii’s decision that counts!” reprimanded the air dragon-slayer.

Cobra stood frozen like an idiot for being told off by his younger sister who never went against his decisions. He suddenly felt betrayed. Next to him, Gajeel was smugly smirking at him and his eyebrow was raised.

Gray who was clearly lost asked Natsu and Wendy in a whisper, “Hey what’s going on?”

The fire mage blushed even more if it was even possible and Wendy giggled before replying, “We’re dragon-slayers right?” Gray nodded, “So here’s the thing, our senses are enhanced, they’re just like a real dragon’s! And so that means that we can smell and hear things other mages can’t!”

“Ooookaaay…And?”

“A~nd, before fainting, Natsu-nii told you something ve~ry~ cute right?”

Catching to what the blue haired girl was implying Gray’s face turned a shade darker-just like Erza’s hair. “S-So y-you mean, everyone heard it? Oh man! This is embarrassing!”

“No way! It’s really cute if you ask me!”

“We~ndy~ stop talking to him as if I’m not here,” whined Natsu while said girl chuckled.

They all turned around to face Cobra when he spoke again, “Ok! That’s enough! As I said before I was nagged by the metal bastard, it’s interrogation time!”

“Hum...they’re right, I’m free to do whatever I want you know?” said the fire mage in a weak voice.

Cobra groaned, “FINE!” He pointed his finger at the ice mage, “ _But_ if you do anything, let me repeat that, if you do any- _fucking_ -thing to him I’ll bash your crane on the wall!”

Gajeel interjected, “That’s a given but I don’t think you need to worry about him thought…He doesn’t seem like he’s lying about his love…,” he smirked then headed towards the door.

“How are you so sure about that?”

Gajeel sighed. “Aren’t you a dragon-slayer? The smell you freak, the _smell_! And there’s a hint of something else’s smell,” his smirk widened, “but I won’t tell what it is, that’s for you guys to discover on your own…” he told the pink and raven headed teens. They stared at him confusedly but he did not elaborate so they let it go.

Gajeel waved his hand and said, “Now then, I’m leaving as well, I have a date with Levy see ya guys.”

“Ah wait Gajeel-nii I’m coming with you!” yelled Wendy.

“Then hurry up! I don’t have all day!” they heard Gajeel say from the hallway.

Wendy jumped from Gray’s lap and ran to the door. She stopped when she reached it and turned to face Cobra, “Gajeel-nii’s right you know? Besides, Gray-nii’s mommy drove at 7h30 in the morning to our house and brought us to the hospital without asking any questions! She even stayed in the hospital until Natsu-nii’s condition got stable, not to mention that Gray-nii hasn’t moved from this room since then! And that was _yesterday_!”

“Okay, okay! I got it, I ain’t complaining about it anymore…,” Cobra sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose before his eyes widened and yelled, “Wait! What?! Gray- _nii_? Why?”

Wendy gave him an innocent smile, “Eh? But he’s my brother-in-law now!” she grinned then placed her hands behind her back and skipped to join the iron dragon-slayer who was waiting for her and smirking at his sister’s daring announcement.

The purple head’ eyes were popping open and his mouth was wide open as well, he turned his head towards the other two who were present in the hospital room to find his younger brother blushing scarlet and the ice mage with a lighter shade of blush. He gave up, he had nothing to say anymore, with a gloomy voice he muttered, “Whatever…do whatever you want…” With these words, he followed the others out of the room leaving the blushing duo behind.

Gray was able to recover first and he sighed. “Man! That’s the first time I’ve ever seen Wendy like that!”

Trying hard to make the pink dust subside from his face, Natsu replied, “That’s because she’s careful about what she says or does when she hangs-out with us.”

“And you don’t?”

“We all do…Even you at some point…I think Lucy and Loke are the only ones who act like themselves when they’re with us…”

“Hmm…You might be right, but what makes you say that I’m not myself when I’m with the group?”

“Your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

“Yes ice princess, your eyes.”

“What about them stupid flame brain?”

“They never show happiness, it’s like they’re stuck in a grieving stage…”

Gray gasped for air and stared wide-eyed at the pink head before slowly leaning towards the mattress to cross his arms on it and rest his head on them. He then laughed loudly for a while. After calming down, he raised his head from its spot and smiled at his friend, “You’re amazing Natsu you know that?”

Natsu was taken-aback by how his friend’s voice was expressing so much love and admiration, “A-Amazing?”

The devil-slayer gave him a soft smile and placed his hand on a tanned one-intertwining their fingers in the process, “Yes, amazing, adorable, admirable and many more. Another thing, before I forget to mention it, I just wanted you to know that I lied back then in the schoolyard…”

The fire dragon-slayer was on the verge of tears, “What did you lie about?”

“I said that I thought I love you yeah?”

“That’s true,” Natsu’s voice was quiet and shaky.

“But that’s not true…” Gray stood up and let go of his friend’s hand, he positioned himself so that he had a knee pressing on the mattress while his other leg was on the floor and his upper body was leaning making his face stand only inches away from Natsu’s.

“Does that mean you don’t love me…,” whispered Natsu with a hint of sadness.

“No…,” replied the raven head with an equally soft voice and he was _very_ slowly bending towards the other teen whose eyes were shining with many emotions. Gray slid a finger on the pink head’s lips-gently touching them. It then made its way up Natsu’s cheek to his temple.

“I don’t _think_ I love you,” whispered the devil-slayer as he began to stroke pink locks of hair. He continued to lean in until their lips met. Natsu’s lips were really soft-it was softer than a rose’s petal.

The fire mage was taken by surprise, he was stunned, but for some reason it did not bother him when Gray placed his lips on his. They might have been cold but the contrast it created with his usual heat made it feel very good. Not only that, but it made him have a warm tingly feeling in his chest that he has never felt before. His pulse was beating fast, his heart was throbbing, it was as if he was about to suffocate, yet he still wanted this feeling to linger. _Is this what they call love?_ He thought.

Gray broke the kiss and stared fondly at the boy in front of him-a blush smeared itself on his face, “I don’t think I love you Natsu,” he repeated.

“Then why did you just do this?” asked Natsu with an agonized expression.

Gray caressed the other boys cheek and pecked his forehead for the umpteenth time, “That’s because I _definitely_ love you.”

The dragon-slayer stared at him with expressive emerald green eyes, “I-I…”

The ice mage smiled and stroked his thumb on the space under the fire mage’s left eye, “Shh…Natsu, you don’t need to say anything,” he whispered softly.

“I-I...C-Can you repeat that?” demanded Natsu with a shaky voice.

“I love you,” whispered again Gray.

“Again.”

“I love you.”

“Again”

“I love you.”

“Again.”

“Natsu what’s wrong?”

“Please, a-agai-,” the pink head’s voice was strangled.

“Natsu I’ll say it to you as many times as you want me to so why are you crying?” he whipped the tears that were leaking from the green eyes that he has always loved. “I love you so don’t cry ok?”

Natsu was unable of stopping his tears from falling and outright started sobbing, feeling a sudden and intense sense of relief, of happiness and of weightlessness. Saying that he was extremely happy was an understatement. With his weakened arms, he clumsily hugged the raven head and continued sobbing while resting his head on the crook of Gray’s neck-whose smile was really bright. “G-Gray, I-I t-think I-I love you too,” Natsu’s voice cracked at the last part.

The raven head chuckled, “Thanks, it makes me happy to know that,” he tightened his hold around the fire mage’s form. He gave him some time to calm down and then asked, “So? Does that make us boyfriends now? Actually wait, the real question is would you like to be my boyfriend?”

Natsu laughed and squeezed his hold on Gray’s neck before releasing and resting his forehead on the others, “Sure Gray Fullbuster, I’d like to be your boyfriend, but are you sure you’d want to be mine? I have heart problems, I’m a dragon-slayer, I don’t have parents, I’m not perfect and I-” A finger fell on his lips, “I already know all that and I don’t care. So what if you have a disease? It’ll just give me an opportunity to take care of you. So what if you’re a dragon-slayer? That makes it much cooler and I’m a devil-slayer myself. So what if you have no parents? Technically speaking, I don’t either and besides, it would give me the chance to baby you more! And nobody’s perfect," he took a deep breath, "I’m not perfect, Lucy’s not perfect, Loke’s not perfect, heck, _even_ Erza’s not perfect and that’s what makes us much more interesting! Finally, I love you and will never, you hear me, _never_ leave you alone. No matter what happens in the future! Even if I discover something weird, or whatever, about your past, or you discover something about mine, or if an unexpected event occurs, or a weird ex slash nag-gy girls pops out of nowhere, or, I don’t know, we surprisingly discover that you can get pregnant,” this got a laugh out of the pink head’s mouth which made the ice mage smile fondly, “anyways, my point is I would _never_ leave you even if you want me to! So remember you’re stuck with me forever!” he grinned.

“And you’re stuck with _me_ forever,” Natsu gave him a watery smile that transformed into a grin when Gray leaned in for another kiss.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked it! please do give me your opinion by commenting :)


	9. Thank you

Gray sighed softly as he glanced at the dragon-slayer’s chest rising and falling calmly (almost in a soothing way), indicating that he was sleeping. The doctor had come in to do another check up on Natsu and he took it as an opportunity to go back home to shower and change his clothes. When he returned to the hospital he found the dragon-slayer sleeping so he came in after gently pulling the door shut as to not wake Natsu up. He then settled on the bench that he was accustomed to after sitting on it for more than a day. The ice mage decided that the best way to pass time while waiting for his friend to wake-up was to stare at said friend. When he took this decision he did not know that it would result with him joining the dragon-slayer into a deep slumber as well.

When Natsu awoke he felt a little disoriented before realizing that he was in the hospital-feeling better than the day before-he tried to shift into a more comfortable position. After settling himself on the bed he turned his head to see if he was left alone or if someone decided to keep him company. Unsurprisingly and with a tinge of happiness, he found Gray sleeping in an uncomfortable position on the bench while leaning his head on the wall. Not wanting Gray’s body to protest about the position he was sleeping in by causing him back pains, Natsu pocked his lover’s nose in an attempt to make him open his eyes. He chuckled as the devil-slayer moaned softly and furrowed his eyebrows.

Finally dark blue eyes opened, still clouded with sleep but taking note of the tan hand that was lifted in front of him. Gray held it and placed the hand on his lap, he gently squeezed it as he spoke, “Since when are you awake?”

“Only a few seconds ago,” he mumbled as he squeezed back on the hand that was holding his.

Gray hummed. “Slept well?”

“Yeah, you?” asked Natsu as he moved his legs from their spot to place them on the floor so he could be facing the ice mage.

“Me too, how was the check up?” said Gray while he held on to the dragon-slayer’s other hand as well.

“Nothing special, Dr. Porlyusica told me I can get out Wednesday morning. They’re keeping me here just in case.”

“That’s great to know.” Relief flooded in Gray’s chest from knowing that Natsu’s health got stable and that he can leave the hospital soon.

Natsu nodded. “So why aren’t you in school?”

The ice mage intently stared at him before replying, “I’m not going until you leave this place.”

Natsu was about to say something to that but changed his mind when he saw the determination that was taking over the blue eyes he felt attracted to. He sighed. “Thanks, but you’ll miss too much.”

“I don’t care, you’re more important. Besides, Laxus promised he’ll bring us the material we’ll be missing. Also Ur said, and I cite, _Nope no school! You go and stick to Natsu during all his stay in the hospital, I finally get to see a real smile coming out of you and it’s because of him so do.not.leave.his.side until he gets out! Now off you go!_ ” Gray shook his head lightly, “Can you believe it? She shooed me out when all I wanted to do was shower! Who said I was planning to go to school anyway?”

Natsu chuckled as he tried to get up, “The others are going to be asking questions when they see both of us missing you stupid ice pervert.”

“They can wonder about it all they want, I don’t give a damn and I have no idea how my shirt got off of me but it’s too far and I’m too lazy to pick it up flame brain,” he muttered as he pulled the dragon-slayer on his lap.

Natsu sat so that his back was facing Gray’s chest and that his legs were spread in front of him on the bed- he even wrapped the ice mage’s arms around his waist for more comfort. His answer to the raven head’s statement was cut off before it started when he heard a loud squeal erupt from the room’s entrance.

Both boys snapped their heads towards the sound and, instantly, their faces turned darker than Erza’s hair color. Lucy was standing in the middle between her boyfriend and the scarlet haired student council president. She was emitting some very weird and high pitched sound that could have broken some fragile glass-good thing the glass present in the room were all sturdy enough. Next to her Erza was shell shocked at was she was seeing. She could not believe her eyes, but eventually did and a red trail started leaking from her nose as her mouth and eyes were wide open. As for Loke, he was holding a smirk on his lips while his hands were trying to muffle his girlfriend’s screams but to no avail.

* * *

It was later  in the evening that Lucy and company found themselves a seat in their friend’s hospital room. Loke was the first one to speak, with a mischievous look he said, “I take it that you’ve gone and changed your relationship?”

Natsu did not want to deal with the situation that he and Gray found themselves in so he opted to ignore anything that was being told and rested his head on the ice mage’s shoulder (even with all the commotion, he still did not leave his lover’s lap, can you blame him? It was too comfortable to care about his surroundings). Sensing that the fire mage was doing his best to ignore the intruders Gray took it upon himself to answer the question that was being directed at them.

“I thought that with your expertise you’d be able to deduce the answer to such question without having me tell you.” The raven head held a sarcastic tone when he spoke.

Loke laughed at this as he replied, “Of course I know what I saw! I just wanted to hear it from you so that you won’t deny it if I mention it later on in life!”

Gray was not able to help it when he shook his head at his friend’s teasing, “Fine, it’s just as you guessed, Natsu and I are a thing now.”

This time it was Lucy’s turn to interject, she was so excited that when she stood abruptly the bench she was sitting on toppled on the floor.

“Oh my gosh!!! Since when? Who asked who out? Who’s the uke? What about the seme? Were you trying to hide it? Did you al-”

“Woah, woah there! Calm down would you?” interrupted Gray.

“Ah sorry, I just got over-excited, you know me when it comes to yaoi, hahaha…” she rubbed the back of her neck as she properly placed her bench back.

Loke slid an arm around her waist as he pulled her closer to him, “I _certainly_ know about that,” he turned his head to face the raven head, “There hasn’t been a day where she stopped writing about yaoi, she’s crazy!”

Gray chuckled and Natsu sighed as he glanced from the side to find Erza waking up. She ended up fainting from losing too much blood because of her nose-bleed and so Loke laid her on Natsu’s hospital bed and here she is now sitting on it-looking at her side (where the boys were) in a daze. The fire mage starred back at her and let go another sigh, “Erza snap out of it, this isn’t like you to be in a daze, it’s _creepy_.” Said girl snapped out of her thoughts and pinched the bridge of her nose before getting an aggravated sigh out. The scarlet head pointed her finger at Lucy and muttered, “Answer to her questions, I’m curious about it as well…”

“Weren’t you asleep then,” groaned the pink head.

“Just _answer_ to them!” spoke Erza with a menacing tone as she glared daggers at the poor fire mage.

Natsu huffed under his breath, “We’ve been a couple for only a few hours. Gray asked me out yesterday in the evening. We weren’t trying to hide it and the fuck does uke and seme mean?”

“Oh that’s simple it’s-” Lucy was about to answer but the pointed look that Gray aimed at her made her shut her mouth instantly. Gray then smiled at the boy siting on his lap and said, “It’s nothing important, it doesn’t matter what it is. You won’t be less smart if you didn’t know what it meant.”

Natsu starred at him suspiciously before asking, “Okaaay…Now then...What the _fucking_ hell on earth are you guys doing here anyways, I don’t remember mentioning to _any_ of you that I'm being hospitalized!”

“Both of you were absent during the whole day and so Loke and Lucy went to see Laxus-sensei after class and he said that he got word that you were hospitalized. And sure enough, when we came and asked if there was any Natsu Dragneel that was admitted in they gave us the number of this room and here we are…We just didn’t expect to be encountered with such a pleasing surprise, let me be the first to congratulate you,” nodded Erza as she smirked at the now blushing duo. “Oh yeah, _this_ better be the reason why you both skipped on Friday!” she hissed.

Both mages nodded frantically their heads and held on to each other for dear life. “So Natsu what’s wrong with you? Why were you hospitalized?” asked Loke to change the course of the conversation.

“Nothing special…I ended up spending a month without any sleep and as you can see it resulted with me being here…If it weren’t for Gray I would’ve spent my whole week-end fainted somewhere lost in the school building…” answered Natsu.

“Oh! Is that why you acted weirdly that day? It’s because you were crank-y?”

“Guess so…”

“Natsu you’re such an idiot! You have to take better care of yourself! Especially since you live alone!” chastised Lucy.

Gray felt the dragon-slayer tense in his arms and he gave him a worried glance to which the pink head smiled to as if to say that he was fine before muttering a “Yeah…” to the celestial mage.

Erza looked out the window to find that the night was starting to fall and so she stood up from the bed and collected her things as she said, “Well it’s great to know that it was nothing big, take better care of yourself Natsu. Anyways, we’ll be leaving now since it’s getting dark outside.” She walked to the door, “See you guys, I’ll be sure to send the assignments you’re missing with Ultear.” They nodded to her before she exited the room.

“In that case we’ll be leaving as well,” Loke and Lucy followed after Erza as they waved their hands goodbye to the boys. In a matter of seconds, Loke popped his back in, in the room and said, “Don’t do anything dirty after we leave. You're still young,” he winked as he laughed and ran away from the pillow that Natsu threw at him.

“Bastard!” the pink head snarled as he went back to leaning on Gray’s chest.

The devil-slayer tightened his hold on the dragon-slayer and asked, “You still don’t want them to know?”

“About?”

“You know what I’m talking about Natsu,” it came out as a whine from the ice mage’s mouth.

“My magic or my heart?”

“Your heart.”

“There’s no need for them to know…They’d fuss about it and start baby-ing me and I hate that…”

Gray hummed. “I guess you’re right, it’d be awful.”

“Yeah…So don’t you dare mention anything about it to them.”

“Sure but I need a silence fee~” Gray smirked as he saw the blush that was making its way on Natsu’s cheeks. Said boy sighed and leaned to peck the ice mage on his lips before settling back with a huff. The devil-slayer chuckled and kissed the top of the fire mage’s head.

“Gray…”

“Hmm?”

“I still haven’t thanked Ur for the trouble she went through because of me,” mumbled Natsu.

“It’s fine, I’m sure she already forgot about it.”

“Don’t care, still need to thank her.”

“Ok, how about you come over after you get out of here?”

“Sure.”

“It’s a deal then!” Gray was excited with the idea of having Natsu come over.

“And Gray…”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for everything and I-I l-love you,” whispered Natsu as he nervously stuttered the last part.

The ice mage fondly stared at his best friend now lover and had a huge grin etched on his feature as he said, “I love you too flame brain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading ^^ Hope you enjoye~d :D


	10. Crazy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the new update and do please forgive me for not updating faster!!! School kind of sucked most of my energy and free time TT^TT
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy *grins*

Natsu woke up to the smell of coffee and to a room engulfed by the darkness. Still disoriented, he moved his hand to look for the missing warmth that was there last night. When his roaming limb was unable to find its target, he slowly opened his eyes to find that the spot next to him was empty. Because of the still lingering warmth in the sheets, he assumed that the ice mage left his side not too long ago. Lazily, he forced himself to get out of bed and slump towards the closed bedroom door. He stood there staring at the door knob as he contemplated his options on whether or not to turn it and start his day or go back to his sanctuary under the undeniably comfortable covers. He was this close to making a decision when the knob turned itself to reveal a dark haired male who stood there surprised to find Natsu standing a few inches away from the door with an extended hand-looking like he was going to fall back to sleep any second at that moment.

When he was done being surprised, Gray shortened the distance between him and the pink head by taking only two small steps and wrapped his arms around said boy. Natsu smiled and hugged him back because he liked it. It was different from hugging Wendy, Sting or Rogue (and in some occasions his older siblings). Hugging the ice mage had more of a soothing effect and he felt safer in his arms while embracing his younger siblings had more of warming feel. The raven head pulled back from the hug at a distance that allowed him to see the younger male’s eyes but still kept him close to his chest.

“You seem like you need more sleep, why’d you get up?” asked Gray while he peered at the half-awake boy in front of him.

“You weren’t there when I woke up and your room is really cold,” he rested his chin on the other’s chest, “You were my source of heat since the covers weren’t enough,” replied Natsu as he slowly pulled the raven head back to the bed.

Gray shook his head amused by the other’s words but still followed him even though he just took a shower and was ready to start his day. Both boys were supposed to be at school right now but seeing that it was only yesterday that Natsu was released from the hospital, Laxus did not want to risk it and told them to take the day off from school-not that they were complaining about it.

Yesterday, while they were packing Natsu’s belongings to leave the hospital, Laxus mentioned that their house was going to be empty the whole day today which means that there was going to be no one to take care of the pink head if something happened again, and that worried the physics teacher immensely (even if he’ll never admit it). Gray’s mother (who was there because she was the only adult they knew who had a car) suggested the magnificent idea of having Natsu sleep over the night, to which Laxus agreed after making her promise that she was going to return him to them in one piece.

Gray had to sweat drop at the thought of Laxus trying to intimidate Ur but to no avail-she is as monstrous as him. Nonetheless, he was still happy to have the fire mage over (especially since they had to share a bed because there was nowhere else for Natsu to sleep on and Ur was totally against the idea of having any of them use the couch as their sleeping sanctuary for the night-she cares for her furniture, they are expensive after all).

Natsu reached the bed and settled on it as he let go of Gray to let him lie next to him. He then curled up on his side as he pressed himself to the ice mage’s chest and smiled when the other put an arm around his waist to pull him closer. He felt unrecognizable warmth in his chest and that is saying a lot since he is a fire mage. It was weird but not a bad weird, he was not able to put his finger on what was bothering him about it and he did not care, all that mattered was that he was feeling something he has not felt for a _very_ long time now-safety and happiness. He snuggled closer to his lover and allowed the scent that was emanating from him to sooth him and lull him back to sleep.

As he felt the muscles under his arm start to relax, Gray peered at the boy who was now lost into a deep slumber and pecked his forehead before settling back and squeezing the sleeping boy in an embrace. The soft snores that invaded the room acted as a stimulant and made Gray’s eyelids feel heavy until they shut down by themselves allowing the raven head to follow his boyfriend to dreamland. Little did they know that someone came in the house from the front door while they were asleep.

* * *

 

Ur finished work early (more like she fled the restaurant she was working in because she had a feeling she was going to see something interesting if she goes back home early. Besides, she owns the restaurants so she has the right to leave any time she wants) and went back home to check on the boys-hoping that the house was still intact. The last time Natsu came over and she left them alone with no surveillance, she came back to find it clean, there was no sign of destruction and the yard looked exactly like she left it…Except there was no house! The boys had annihilated it completely as a result from their daily bickering, not even the rumbles of the building were spared. Everything was turned to dust. From then on she made sure that whenever Natsu came over, someone else other than Gray had to be home.

Here she is right now standing in front of the house and sighing in relief to find it still intact and in one piece. She slowly unlocked the door and poked her head inside the big enough crack and was surprised to see that it was silent. It might be true that they do not always end-up destroying everything around them but there was no way that they do not scream their throats out at each other when they are in the same room. She let herself in and locked the door behind her. She did not even bother taking her shoes off as she walked through the house looking for the boys. When they were nowhere in sight she stalked over her son’s room and stuck her ear on the closed door but when she was unable to hear anything she opened the door very slowly and peeked through the crack that was made to find it too dark to see. _Could they still have not woken up?_ She thought.

Resigned to that fact, she allowed herself in her son’s room even if she knew that he abhorred the idea of having someone enter his room without his permission. But she ignored that, _she_ was the one who paid for the rent after all. When she got in she saw a lump under the covers so she headed towards the bed to pound some sense into her son’s head for sleeping in at this late of an hour. As soon as she got there she lifted her arm to whack the raven head but at the sight of what was on the bed she forgot all about it and gasped loudly.

In front of her laid the boys, on their sides, cuddling each other. Natsu was lightly curled up as a ball in front of her son’s chest and his hands were tightly holding on the shirt the other was surprisingly still wearing. He was an adorable sight. As for Gray, he had an arm wrapped around the other’s waist and the other arm was around the fire mage’s neck. Gray’s head was positioned on top of Natsu’s and their legs were tangled with each other. Ur resisted from screaming at the utterly cute sight and took her cellphone out instead. She took a picture of the boys and left the room as she closed the door without making any noise and setting the new picture as her cellphone’s new background with a huge grin. With that she went to prepare for supper in a very happy mood.

* * *

 

It was late in the evening when the couple left the room to officially start their day after Lyon came in and bothered them until they both threw their pillows at him to make him leave them alone. They were both cranky when woken up forcibly and Lyon already knew that about Gray but had to discover it the hard way about Natsu. The pillow Natsu threw was holding three times as much strength as the one Gray threw, which explained why they were all sitting at the dining table without Lyon who was still unconscious in front of Gray’s room.

Ur had prepared a feast and seeing that she was an amazing chef, Gray had to control the drool that was about to come out of his mouth. On his side, he could see Natsu’s eyes shining with interest at the food that was settled on the table and he chuckled lightly at that as he turned his attention to his mother who joined them at the table after bringing the plates.

“You seem happy,” he said.

Ultear who was sitting in front of the raven head, raised a brow and said, “She does seem like something great happened.”

Their mother smiled brightly as she replied, “I’m more than happy! Today I saw something amazing I would have never thought it would happen!”

Her children stared at her curiously, indicating her to continue with their eyes, which she did while serving them the food and smiling at Lyon who came back from the dead to join them at the table as well.

“Why don’t you guys guess what happened first? It wouldn’t be as fun if I immediately tell you about it, would it? And the looser will have to help me make dessert!”

They laughed and started playing the _guess what_ game while Lyon (who was lost) and Natsu started eating their food as they ignored their surroundings from how tasty it was.

“You got promoted,” started Gray.

“Idiot, how can she be promoted when she’s the owner? I’d say she opened a new restaurant!” guessed Ultear.

Ur shook her head in the negative saying that they were both wrong. “Come on! I know you guys can guess it.” She peeked at Gray as she said it and stared back at her plate as she took her first bite. They were so deep in thought that they have not realized the small peeks that she gave Gray now and then while they were not paying attention.

Natsu decided then to help them a bit, “I’m sure it has something to do with Gray.”

“Why’d you think that Natsu?” asked Ultear.

He stood and took his plate with him as he walked towards the kitchen and said, “She’s been peeking at him for a while now, I have no idea what it is about but I’m sure he’s the reason she’s happy right now.”

Ur stared at him incredulously, “Wow! I never thought that you pay attention to such small details!”

He turned to face her, “Paying attention to these small details is what allows things to turn over and save you,” he grinned and made his way to kitchen.

Ur stared at his back as he disappeared from the room they were in and chuckled, “He’s not as stupid as people believe he is.”

Gray slid his chair back so he can leave, “Of course not! He’s smart! Very smart, he just doesn’t like to show it off,” he winked and joined the pink head to wash the dishes.

“So? Will you tell us what made you happy about Gray?” wondered Ultear.

A smirk made its way on her mother’s lips as she said, “He got himself a lover.”

The other two occupants of the table stared at her as if she grew a second head and started laughing so hard that Lyon fell from his chair to roll on the floor. His older sister whipped a tear from the rim of her eye and said in between chuckles, “G-Gray, haha, Gray has a lover? Impossible! No way! Not happening! Did you see the guy? He’s not interested in any girl! And his stuck-up personality makes them all run away!”

Ur shook her head lightly and sighed softly at her children’s antics, “I’m not asking you guys to believe me. I saw it with my own eyes and who said it was a girl?”

As soon as she uttered these words Lyon froze on the floor and Ultear gasped. When the shock subsided the white head went back to laughing with ten times more of the energy from before, and Ultear started fangirling and imagining her brother in a relationship with another boy.

“Who is it? Is it a cute guy or the handsome type? Or wait! Could it be the macho type? Ah! Is Gray the uke or the seme? I knew the guy wasn’t into girls! His face is too cute for that! Oh my god! He is cute so if he’s the seme then that means his boyfriend is fucking adorable! Oh man! Now I wanna see him! Do you have a picture? I know you have a picture! You always do! Show me, show me! Pretty please!!!”

Ur had to laugh at how excited her daughter was about the situation, although she felt like pounding her son to death for laughing but she tried to ignore that feeling and opted to answering her daughter’s question, “Yeah his boyfriend is pretty adorable if I dare say. He might even pass for a girl but don’t ever tell him that, I’m sure he’d punch the hell out of you if you did. And yup! I obviously have a picture that I took a few hours ago!”

She took out her phone and showed Ultear the picture she took. The moment Ultear saw who played the role of being her younger brother’s lover she yelled, “NATSUUUUUUU!!!!”

Said boy whipped his hand clean when he heard his name being yelled. He knew why since his keen sense of hearing allowed him to listen to most of the conversation when Gray was not distracting him with tiny pecks on the lips. He had to smile at the craziness that was emanating from this family even though he had no right to say that because his family was nothing close to being better. _Oh well! At least they’re not against our relationship_ , he thought.

On the other hand, Gray did not know about what happened at the dining table after he left, so he was clueless about why his older sister would yell for Natsu and that worried him since she can be crazy sometimes. He ignored his thoughts when the pink head pulled him towards where his family was and hoped that nothing embarrassing or crazy would happen. But as usual, they always went against his wishes.

Ultear left her mother’s side to stand next to the fire mage and pinched his cheeks as she grinned from ear to ear. “He really is cute and adorable! Why haven’t I realized this before?”

“Maybe because they’re usually fighting and so we never got the chance to think about his appearance since we’d be busy groaning about the destruction he caused with Gray?” offered Ur.

Lyon stopped laughing a while ago but he started again when he heard that Natsu was the lover they were talking about, “This is unbelievable! It needs to be spread in the news! Two incredibly destructive riv-” he was unable to finish his sentence for Ultear swiftly kicked him on the stomach (which silenced him for a few hours) while she was still pinching the pink head’s cheeks.

“Maybe, but who cares about that now?” She turned to look at Gray, “What matters is when you are planning to make him my brother in law? He’s too cute! I want to replace him with Lyon! Can I replace him with Lyon?”

Gray blushed, “We’ve been a couple for only a few days! You can’t expect me to marry him already! Besides, we’re still highschoolers and seriously? I’m not really into incest so, _no_ , you can’t exchange him with Lyon!”

“Well…You have a point but don’t you dare let him go! I want him in my family and, right now, him being your wife, is the only way!”

“W-Wife?!” stuttered Natsu as he yelled. “I’m a man! If anything I’d be his husband _not_ wife!”

“Ah! no, sorry sweetie,” she smiled at him with a not so sweet smile that actually sent a cold shiver down his spine, “but the other day when Gray came home from the hospital for a change of clothes he boasted about how amazing your cooking is and that’s one of the many criteria a good housewife needs!”

Gray sighed and Ur chuckled as she said, “Ultear leave the poor boy alone. You’re embarrassing him.”

Said girl reluctantly let go of the fire mage and tried to think about something that bugged her when she mentioned Gray talking to them when he came back home from the hospital. She snapped her fingers as soon as she remembered something, “That’s right!” she pointed her finger at Natsu, “You! Gray also told us that you knew that he’s a devil-slayer, what did you do to make him say it?” Her tone had an over-protective feel to it and Natsu sighed as he replied, “Nothing, just told him that I was a dragon-slayer.”

Ultear’s eyes widened and her jaw slacked but instantly she regained her composure and excitement took over her feelings, “Seriously?! That is _so_ cool! This is the second dragon-slayer I’ve ever met!”

“Wait what?” the pink head stared at her as his eyes widened as well, “Second? Who’s the first? And you seem awfully calm knowing about dragon-slayers…”

“Ah yes, I don’t really mind them. I hate the prejudices created about them. I mean, here you are right now and look at you,” she waved her hand at him, “Do you look anything close to someone who’s ready to kill and cause disasters to the human kind? And I’m not talking about your appearance or how cute you are! I’m saying that you have such a caring and gentle character that I can’t imagine or believe that you’d want to harm anyone for no apparent reason! Besides! You might be a dragon-slayer _but_ you’re still human! So there’s no way I’ll _ever_ doubt any of you! I’ll always believe in you, after all, you are my baby brother’s cute little boyfriend,” she pulled her tong out in a teasing way but smiled softly when she saw the fire mage’s eyes glaze with unshed tears and patted him on the head.

Natsu smiled brightly, “You guys really are siblings!” He threw a quick glance at Gray and his smile brightened when the raven head stared back with a small grin. Beside the ice mage, Ur was unable to hold back the seemingly infectious smile that she was holding and got up to clear the table from the dishes as she said, “Seeing that you’re going to be a part of us from now on, do please take good care of us!” With that she disappeared in the kitchen.

Natsu laughed and walked to Gray while staring at Ultear, “You still haven’t told me who the other dragon-slayer is.”

“Oh yeah!” She lightly slapped her forehead for forgetting about it, “His name is Cobra, or more like Erik,” when she saw the baffled expression that drew itself on the pink head’s face she added, “Do you know him?”

“Kn-Know him?” he took a deep breath and repeated with a snarl, “Know him? I _more_ than know him.”

He turned on his heels and continued, “Excuse me, I have to leave.”

“Do you want me to accompany you?” asked Gray

“If you feel like discovering what a bar-b-cued human looks like than you’re all welcomed,” Natsu’s voice was scary and a dark aura was surrounding his frame.

“Eh? What’ll you do?” wondered Ultear who was oblivious about what is going on and Gray shrugged his shoulders resigned as he said, “Just put your shoes on and come with us if you really want to know…It’s easier for you to find out this way anyway.”

Ultear did not hesitate for a second, she wore her shoes but still repeated her question to the fire mage, “Seriously, why do you look like you’re so pissed off? What’re you going to do?”

Natsu left with them through the gates of the house and started walking on the path that was going to lead them to Laxus’s mansion, “Nothing. Nothing will happen. I’ll just make sure to make a bastard who always insisted on keeping our lives a secret burn immensely under my flames!”

For some unknown reason, these words sent a shiver down Ultear’s spine and she hugged herself to subside the feeling. Meanwhile, in the middle of the forest, as he was unlocking the mansion’s gates Cobra sneezed and had a bad feeling about it. “Someone must be talking shit behind my back,” he whispered as he walked through the gates and reached the mansion’s entrance. When he went in and settled in his room, he sneezed again and said, while scratching his nose, “Yup, someone must be talking shit about me…”

 


	11. Absence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya!!!! Ok actually never mind…I’M SORRYYYYYY!!!!! I know I have no excuse to not update but, but, but…ok yeah, I have nothing to say to justify myself…I’m sorry m(_ _)m  
> Although I still hope that you guys will enjoy this depressive chapter…ok now up you go!

Anger, frustration and a tad bit of betrayal was portrayed on Natsu’s very expressive features as he stood in front of Cobra’s closed room. Thinking about the rules and regulations his brother has put on them and made their life styles a living hell by insisting that they be followed (specially by the younger ones) made him so infuriated. He could not believe that Cobra could do this to them!

With these lingering thoughts, Natsu had not bothered to knock and, instead, busted the door open, thus, making the raven headed siblings to sweat drop.

“You bastard!”

The poison dragon-slayer, who was in a deep state of slumber, woke up with a start when the broken door flew on the wall-missing him by only a few millimeters.

“What the fuck?!” he yelled as he was confused about what was happening. His eyes sparked in anger when they found the culprit who bothered him during his sleep and was equally glaring-if not with twice as much force-at him.

“ _Natsu_! You motherfucker! What the fucking hell do you think you’re doi-”

When his eyes spotted the two other intruders, his voice suddenly was lost. Gray was not his problem. Well he is but not at the moment…He learned, in the few days the fire mage was hospitalized, to accommodate to the idea that the ice mage is going to be a new addition to the family in the future. Hopefully it will be in as far as it could be! But no, surely it is an ice mage causing him discomfort but not this one. In fact, that person was an ice mage yet not an ice mage. _Fuck! Ultear…_

“O-Oh! W-What are you doing here Ul?”

“E-Eh?! M-Me?” She turned her head, looking at her sides as she pointed at herself to make sure she was the only Ul in the room and that the purple headed teenager had not meant someone else other than her. The unexpected attention she got made a very tiny blush spread on one of her cheeks but being the strong woman her mother taught her to be, she regained her composure easily. Clearing her throat she said, “About that, we’re somewhat going to be some kind of family? I’m Gray’s older sister! And, well, I thought that maybe I can come say hello? Nice to meet you by the way,” a bright smile spread on her lips as she waved her hand in front of herself (trying-in vain- to lighten the mood around them).

* * *

 

The four teenagers were now sitting on the floor of Cobra’s definitely not closed room. Natsu had his hand propped on his knee while his head rested on the palm of his hand, glaring daggers at his older brother. Gray sat next to him with his legs crossed and his hands were lightly clenched on his ankles. He was staring at his boyfriend the whole time with a worried look. He was worried that this outburst of emotions would be the cause of another collapse of the younger teenager. But seeing that said teenager was very angry convinced Gray not to mention this piece of information to him…An angry Natsu can be a very scary Natsu and the ice mage was not in the mood to deal with an angry Natsu right now…

On the other hand, not willing to risk to sit next to the fire mage, Cobra took the spot between both ice mages while trying extremely hard to avoid his younger brother’s usually beautiful green eyes. He was sure that if he dared give a tiny single look he would see a toxic green instead of an exotic emerald green on the other’s orbs. Not to mention that he was more than sure that if looks could kill, well, then…he would be dead a long time ago. Since the moment the pink head stepped in his room to be more precise. The only person who was somehow relaxed in all of this tension was Ultear who was lying on her stomach with her feet swinging in the air as if the situation was nothing to worry about.

Having enough of this tension in the air, Natsu took the initiative and opened the conversation with a simple, “So? Care to justify your actions?”

Cobra flinched at the unusual tone that was used by his younger sibling and he tried to avoid the matter in hand by saying something else but the glare that was sent his way made him tense even if there was quite the distance between him and Natsu.

He sighed and finally turned his face to stare at the fire mage and said, “Look here Natsu, I don’t see why I gotta explain myself when you did the same thing with Gray and do I need to remind you that none of us made you _justify your actions_ ,” he crossed his arms in front of his chest, “And here you are dating him as if you haven’t done something wrong by revealing everything to him so I don’t see with what right you come and point fingers at me!”

Cobra was about to sigh in relief when he heard his brother say, “Oh right, you have a point! I’m really sorry for getting angry at you. Forgive me yeah?” But, unfortunately, things never go the way he wants and that was proven by the pillow that collided with his face as soon as Natsu finished asking his so called question.

“You really thought I’d say that?! You’re an idiot you know? It’s not like I got out of telling Gray about it without anything! There was a compromise between us and he held on to his promise besides, he’s not far from what we are ourselves! He’s a devil-slayer so there’s no risk of him betraying our trust, _my_ trust in him! I’m not saying that Ultear is any less trustworthy, in fact, what I’m so angry about isn’t that you went and told Ultear about us being dragon-slayer but that you did exactly what you’ve been denying us for years from doing!”

Natsu’s voice was getting louder and louder with each word that was pronounced which brought the attention of the young Wendy who just came back from school. She heard the fire mage yell at the top of his lungs when she was taking off her shoes to get in the house and worried about what was going on she climbed the stairs to where she assumed the yelling came from to find herself at the doorway of Cobra’s room. The broken door was not what fazed her but the sight of the really furious Natsu that was yelling very loudly at the poison mage who got up from his position to retaliate was what made her gape soundlessly.

The poison mage was being accused and his pride would never let it go without a fight!

“What the hell Natsu?! If I ever insist in these rules and regulations that you guys keep on calling stupid is only because I care for you and I want to avoid the dangers that I know you guys would encounter if I didn’t take these _precautions_!”

“Ohoho! So now you care for _us_?” snarled Natsu.

“Of course! I’ve always cared for you guys! Every step I take and everything decision I make are to make sure that you and the others live safely, especially after what happened to us in the past!” Cobra desperately tried to make the fire dragon-slayer understand his reasons but the other was too stubborn to let go. Sensing the gravity of the situation the ice mage siblings made out for the door and stood next to Wendy who was joined earlier by Sting and Rogue who were curious about what was going on.

At this point, Natsu was laughing hysterically which caused all eyes to be on him. They all thought that he finally lost his mind but when he calmed down a united sigh of relief could be heard from the doorway of the room, “Sure, I can easily believe your words…Why don’t you go feed your lies to someone who’s willing to be fooled by your words _bastard_.”

The pink headed boy was about to leave but stopped in his tracks when he heard the other say, “Natsu I really don’t understand where you’re getting with your accusations…”

“Fine! If you want me to make it clear to you I will!” He turned towards the younger ones and said, “You guys go to your rooms _now_ ,” and of course none of them listened.

“Listen here Cobra- _nii_ , you’ve been disappearing without a word for years now. You go and never come back before months and months go on. And to make it worse, during our most important part of our lives you just outright disappeared for three _whole fucking_ years and didn’t come back before a week ago. You can’t expect from me or anyone who lives here for a matter to take your leaves as something great! You’re our brother, our sibling, our _family_ for god’s sake! You can’t just disappear from our lives and come back when you just feel like it. We’re not a bunch of charity cases that you decide to visit at dire times only! You’re, _somewhat_ , a necessity in our lives!”

Natsu was now, gasping for air from all the emotions he was feeling. He felt his eyes sting but would never allow the tears to fall. It was about time someone chastised this moron about his actions and since he started he was not going to stop until he made it clear to the other that his actions have been hurting them all. So he continued before losing the courage to do so.

“That’s not all what your selfishness has been doing! Tell me, tell me where were you? Where were you when Laxus was left all alone to take care of us all? Where were you when he was working his ass off making sure that we all had something to eat by the end of the day during the first year you left us? Where were you when he gave up his future and dreams to support us? If it weren’t for Gramps we wouldn’t have been able to manage! He was the one who offered Laxus to work as a physics teacher since he was really good at it. With the money he made we were able to build this huge mansion with our own strength! With that money we were finally able to eat well and finally get the children to school. What about Gajeel? Do you know how much he suffered back then? He used to look up to you so much. But you _left_! Tell me! Where were you when Gajeel used to come back extremely drunk from bars at ungodly hours of the night? When he came back from _red districts_ drunk and stinking of sex and alcohol? When he got embroiled into a gang of dark magic users? When he, afterwards, joined a high school of dark mages which he still is in? When he’s unable of detaching himself from his past that’s following him everywhere? When he got engulfed by the dark? _Where were you_? And where were you when Sting used to come back home from school _crying_? When he refused to go to school for months until Laxus went to see what was happening at school to make him totally refuse it? When we discovered that he was bullied just because he was parentless? When he was accused of _fucking_ prostitution at such a young age just because he _looks like_ a playboy? When Rogue was mistreated? When he was insulted of many things by his so called friends just because he doesn’t like the same things the others do? When Rogue was being accused of _murder_ by his peers just because he was obsessed with the color black? When they both were told they were monsters by their schoolmates? Tell me _Cobra_ , where were you back then? When Wendy collapsed because we discovered she used to consume drugs without her own knowledge? Where were you when we discovered that someone used to feed them to her by infusing them in her favorite juice? When she discovered that that person was her best friend? When she was hospitalized for weeks because she had to get it out of her system? When she started to have trust issues because of it? When she refused to socialize because of it? When she was scared of people because of it? _Where the, fucking hell on earth, were you?_ ”

By the end of his ranting Natsu’s voice got louder and it was wavering with each word that was pronounced. The memories alone were making him feel anxious and want to curl up in on himself and shut down the whole world that was surrounding him but the arms that were suddenly wrapped around his torso made him release all the pent up stress he was feeling during all these years with a long and loud sigh. He would turn his head to see who the one that embraced him was but the scent of mint and pine gave it all away. _Gray…_

The fire mage leant on the others chest and took comfort in the embrace’s warmth and how soothing his lover’s scent was. Gray who felt how the younger boy’s figure was relaxing between his arms tightened his hold and buried his nose in pink locks.

Meanwhile, Cobra was left stunned by his younger brother’s rambling. He was unable to believe what he heard, how come no one told him about any of these happening during his absence? He directed his gaze to the ones that were standing under the doorframe to find that Gajeel and Laxus had joined them in the middle of Natsu’s revelations. Not only that, but Sting was tightly holding onto the elder of their siblings by his pants while Rogue was hiding behind the iron dragon-slayer’s leg. Gajeel had a strained expression featured on his face and Wendy’s lips lifted into a sad smile as for Laxus he left his expression unreadable-it was blank. In the same time, Ultear was giving Cobra a worried look which he tried to avoid by staring back at the fire mage to find him hiding his face in the ice mage’s chest. That was not what made him hold back a whimper, but the fact that Natsu’s figure was shivering and that Gray was doing his best to comfort the younger boy. _I made him cry…I caused my family-the ones who accepted me-a lot of grief and sadness!_

Cobra tried talking, saying anything, he never felt the need to ask for forgiveness as much as how he was feeling it right now before! He wanted to make things right again, he wanted to go back to the past and refrain from doing many things but he knew, he knew it was too late for that right now…Instead, he let out in a low whisper a, “What about you? You mentioned how the others suffered but what about you?”

He regretted his words as soon as he saw the pink head flinch. He pursed his lips together and glared at the floor without saying another word as the guilt rose inside of him.

Laxus came back home to hear no one greeting him. Not used to such a thing, he got curious and so he headed to the second floor but stopped in his tracks when he heard (with his draconic hearing) Natsu rambling about what they went through during Cobra’s absence which made him run through the last of the distance. He was worried about what brought the fire mage to talk about that. He knew no one would bring such a topic up unless something bad happened.

When he reached the room he found Gajeel already there in addition to the younger ones as well as a woman he never saw before and when he got a glimpse inside of the room he found Gray standing next to Natsu hesitating about hugging him or not. Although, when Natsu (who weirdly has not realized the other’s presence) yelled his last sentence with so many emotions, the ice mage got rid of his hesitation and embraced his boyfriend with a pained face. Seeing that the pink headed teenager was taken care of for the moment he stared at the room’s owner and found Cobra expressing a lot of pain and grieve on his face.

Laxus did not like this one bit; his family was in a tight spot and was in extreme need of a talk about what was going on, for he still was not aware about what brought all these revelations and shouts up. Not to mention the tension that was in the air. As he sighed, he pinched the bridge of his nose and said, “All of you downstairs _now_. We need to talk and I’m _not_ taking no for an answer by any of you. Gray and you woman are to join us.”

With that he headed to the ground floor before them and left them all staring after him with wide eyes.

                                         

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you enjoy? Or did you find it a bore? Tell me what you thought by commenting!   
> And thank you so much for even taking the time to read this new chapter ^^


	12. Behemoth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahem...I know it has been an eternity since I last updated and would like to say sorry for that!!!!  
> it's just that in the past couple of month my life has gone very hectic and I'm sorry!!!!!!!!!! please forgive me!

A loud scream could be heard echoing amongst the walls of the first floor of the elegant and grandiose mansion. The residents of the so-called mansion were all standing in the incredibly huge living room as they stared at their younger (older to some) sister running around-trying to escape from the clutches of the abominable monster that has been following her every step since she set foot on the first floor.

If we were honestly speaking, Natsu was glad that this ridiculous distraction has occurred since he was not ready to have-in any way-the discussion that was supposed to occur a few minutes ago.

When Laxus came back home and suggested they needed to discuss things further and explain themselves for his and Cobra’s weird behavior earlier in the day, the pink headed boy thought his heart would stop beating from the amount of stress and anxiousness he felt. Having that conversation meant everyone had to reveal what they tried so hard to forget during these past few years and not to mention they had to relive every single action that took place back in the time. So, with the amount of effort and perseveration he has put to try and live on while ignoring his past, Natsu was not so keen and definitely not in a hurry to have his past life revealed so easily in a matter of seconds. Thus, he being overly grateful for the sudden appearance of what Wendy would call a hideously-abominable-disgusting-and-creepy-fiend-of-a-behemoth-monster (although he never understood her reasoning behind her words…were behemoth and monster not the same thing?).

On one side of the room the young sky dragon-slayer was running around while screaming and yelling at the top of her lungs for the evil tiny creature to leave her alone, whilst on the other side of the same room stood the male occupants and guests. Some were staring apathetically at their younger sister (Natsu and Rogue), some showed their amusement by laughing hysterically, holding back their laughter or smiling with a raised brow (Sting, Gray and Ultear), whereas others were just pinching the bridge of their nose, sighing and shaking their heads in exasperation from their younger sister’s antics (Laxus, Cobra and Gajeel).

Despite their reactions, the thought alone of going to aid their only sister has never even crossed their minds.

Resigning to the fact that her heartless and cruel brothers were not going to come to her rescue, the blue headed teenager ran and ran and ran until she reached her target and clutched herself onto him as he let her without any complaints.

“Wendy you’re strangling me,” his hands enveloped her smaller body even after she tightened her hold with twice as much force, causing him to gasp for air.

“I don’t care! And I’ll let you know that I won’t let go of your neck until you kill it Natsu-nii!!!”

“Huff! It’s nothing worth killing, it could be considered a mere microbe or bacteria compared to enemies we’ve faced in the past Wendy…”

Said girl slightly loosened her hold on her brother, enough to look at him in the eyes but not enough to let go of her tight grip around his neck, “Surely you jest! You surely must have seen the atrocity of such creature with your overly enhanced sight! Are thou not capable of distinguishing the complete and utter difference between an exquisite monster that means us harm but does not turn us nauseous and a hideously-abominable-disgusting-and-creepy-fiend-of-a-behemoth-monster that cares not about our being?! It is an abomination! I demand it be burned and lit on fire under our splendid and magnificent eyes!”

“Uuuuh…Wend-”

“Burn it alive!”

“Wend-”

“Burn it at the stake!”

“Wen-”

“Hang it to the people to see!”

“W-”

“Kill iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”

“WENDY!”

The young dragon-slayer gave back her attention to her pink headed brother to see that he was staring at her incredulously. If she were to turn her head at a different angle she would also see that Rogue was hiding behind Gajeel’s legs scared out of his mind by his older sister’s suddenly frightening demeanor. He was clutching on the leg so hard that the iron dragon-slayer would have yelled a startled noise but he was so shocked he did not even bat an eyelid. Next to him, Laxus stared wide-eyed with his arms crossed against his chest and his back leaning on the wall trying so hard to comprehend what just happened but to no avail.

Cobra chose to sit on one of the available sofas in the room as he muttered something about being on an overdose of coffee, hallucinations and banning himself from dinking poisons he never heard of before ever again. Ultear mimicked his action by sitting next to him but instead of muttering gibberish to herself she was sending the video she just filmed with her lacrima induced phone to her mother.

In front of Natsu who was still holding Wendy and staring at her wide-eyed with his mouth agape, Gray was clutching his stomach so hard and clasped the other hand on his mouth to hold back his laughter (his extremely shaking form a proof of it…) whilst Sting had his eyebrows furrowed and confusion etched his features. To him, it seemed like Wendy was speaking in an alien language…

Being the first to regain his composure, Natsu forced a smile (that was too sweet) on his lips. It was so sweet that it sent a shiver down even Laxus’s spine.

“We~n.dy~”

The oblivious girl stared in confusion at him as she replied, “Yes?”

“Pray you tell me who the _fucking hell_ on earth introduced you to medieval dramas that incidentally include witches and burning and witchcraft and sorcerers and _fucking witches_?”

A gasp could be heard out of her mouth before she said, “Wow! How did you know I’m watching such a drama Natsu-nii?”

Her question was followed by multiple sweat-drops from those standing in the room, “’Cause I’m awesome like that now tell me, _who was it_?”

The glare and murderous aura that accompanied his words gave no choice to Wendy so she reluctantly started replying but when her eyes fell on something everyone seemed to have forgotten, her posture stiffened, her eyes widened and her mouth opened to let out a very loud scream-making Natsu let go of her to muffle his ears with them as Wendy climbed on him like a monkey, thus obstructing his vision in the process.

“Wendy what the hell?!”

“It’s back! The motherfucking shit is baaaaaack!”

“Excuse me?!” The fire dragon-slayer took hold of his younger sister and tried as hard as he can to let her go of him and when he succeeded, he deliberately threw her at Gajeel who caught her in surprise and making him the next victim of her shenanigans.

“Clearly whoever you’re hanging out with to watch movies and dramas will have to be buried six feet underground!”

This time Laxus interjected and added, “Not to mention that you’re grounded Wendy for using such foul language.”

“What? Why? That’s not fair you guys always use it!”

“Gihi! Don’t worry, we had our share of beating at your age whenever we used to say them,” Gajeel was still trying to pry his sister of his back so that he can hand her to another looser of a victim.

“Oh…Ok then…More importantly, I don’t care about that right now. Our main priority is that grotesque little thing!!!!” She pointed at the tiny little creature that was watching them but not moving at all as she yelled for it to be killed and that they accomplish the task before it attacks them since it was plotting their death right about now.

Gajeel who was unnerved and pissed to no end about this (having Rogue and Wendy clutching at him like some baby koalas did not help sooth his temper) announced that he will crush it to smithereens to which Wendy reacted badly…

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! You can’t! Don’t crush it! Kill it but don’t crush it!”

Gajeel had a tick mark forming on his temple and was about to throw her off out of the window but he calmed down and tried to take a deep breath since he knew that if he did so he’d have three overly protective dragon-slayers on his back…

“Wendy you’re being unreasonable, how would we kill it if we can’t crush it?” said the pink headed boy.

“You’re a fire mage are you not? Then just burn it!!!”

“No, cause with how frustrated I’m feeling right now with you _and_ Cobra I think my magic would go out of control.”

With that comment, the poison dragon-slayer raised his head from his cloud of depression and disbelief, “WHAT?! I thought we forgot about that!”

“Ah…No…I still want to know why Ultear is aware of us.”

Natsu’s present interlocutor huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose before replying, “Fine! I’ll tell you!”

“About time you do…”

“Shut the fuck up Gajeel,” he sent the raven head a glare and redirected his gaze to Natsu and Gray who pulled the fire mage to his side after controlling his outburst of laughter, “but before that…,” he nudged the person sitting next to him with his elbow, “Ultear close the recording of the video…”

Taken by surprise, said girl coughed to suppress her blush and did as she was told.

“Ok, so I’ll start now…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

A tick mark and a flash of lightning directed towards Cobra were enough to hint towards what the eldest of the gang was trying to send as a message, “Quit stalling or I’ll make sure your funeral will occur in the seconds to come!”

Clearing his throat, Cobra went on, “So…When I went away for a few years, I kinda got caught by the council for I don’t know what. They thought I was part of a group that caused a war somewhere on earth-I have noooo idea where- and so they took me in and accused me of murder. In there, I was imprisoned with a couple of other people who were under the same accusations and well…Ultear-this idiot-was one of them. Another person would be Jellal, I’m sure you’ve heard of him Natsu, as he’s one of your friends’-her name was Erza I think-friend.” Both Gray and Natsu nodded their head in affirmation at that. “Midnight, Racer, Angel, Hoteye, Meredy and Brain were all people that were there under false accusations-well, except for Brain…He was a real psycho-anyways, we got to know each other better and were mistreated by the council for who knows what. They’re a bunch of fuckers that’s for sure. One day, Brain went all coucou on us and so we had to defeat him and end his life-thank god for that-since if we didn’t then we’d be the ones dead.”

He and Ultear stared at each other before the latter took it upon her to continue, “After the fight, we tried to justify our actions with the council but with how hardheaded they were they refused to believe a single word we said. So Jellal, our self-appointed leader, did what he did best and plotted a plan to make us run away from there. Which we did successfully and in such a cool way too! You guys should’ve seen how cool he tried to act when we were appointed as fugitives! Aaaanyways, while we were on the run we met another group of fuckers and got into trouble with them as we tried to defeat them. Although, for some reason Cobra and Jellal both told us to run away before it was too late instead of fighting. And so we did.” She leaned back on the sofa and stared at the ceiling as she went on with the story, “The thing here is that because we were marked as dangerous criminals by the council we had to be very careful with every step we took, leading us to not come back to town for a few years. Well…for me and Cobra that is, the others weren’t living in this town before. This kinda explains why we went missing or more like absent for a few years…,” she gave a guilty look to her raven headed brother but smiled when he shook his head as if to say it was okay and that he understood her reasons behind her actions.

“If we came back, back then, we would have put our families and friends in danger since it was still fresh news that we were fugitives…The thing here is that during our absence, we had Hoteye and Midnight hack the council’s systems and erase any detail and trace of us from there. So that made us safe from them but the problem was not them to start with…The group of fuckers we encountered, they weren’t _any_ group of fuckers. They were part of a huge and very dangerous underground organization.”

She sighed softly before continuing, “Before running away from them, we actually managed to wreck one of their many bases and thus making us part of their black list of people they want their heads alive or dead. This piece of information would explain why we always leave and come back without any explanation…I’m sorry about that guys…I-I…”

Ultear felt a hand touch her shoulder warmly as tears started to form at the rims of her eyes. When she turned her head, she saw the hand’s owner give her a tiny smile and took her place in finishing the story.

“So now to answer your question Natsu, at some point in our travels, Jellal had this stupidly bright idea to ask us questions that would reveal something about ourselves. He said it was something to make us know each other better and that it would help us feel closer to each other or whatever,” he dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand, “And so we did as he told us. Somewhere along the way, Meredy asked us what type of magic we were using and everyone answered except for me. I refused to do so and give away this piece of information so easily so I kept my mouth shut. Well…until they all ganged up against me and forced me to get it out. They were all shocked-should’ve taken a picture, it was so hilarious-but got excited in a matter of seconds. With that I end this extremely boring chapter of my life and would like to ask a question of mine.”

His hands were spread on top of the couch he was sitting on by this point and he turned his head towards Natsu first but when he saw him avoid his stare he decided to let him go for now and looked at Gajeel instead.

“Who’s Levy?”

The iron dragon-slayer cheeks were tainted with a dust of pink but simply answered with a “She’s just a friend.”

His blush did not go unnoticed by the others but they still accepted his answer for now. On the other hand, Laxus moved from his spot and headed towards the only occupied couch. When he reached it he chopped his hand over the purple headed teenager and left the room but not without ruffling the purple strands of hair to indicate that he was forgiven.

Sting and Rogue contented themselves by hugging their older brother and-in Sting’s case- grinning foolishly at him before running after the lightning dragon-slayer. Gajeel simply nodded in his direction and followed after the youngsters.

This left Cobra looking at the pink headed boy. The fire mage had his head lowered in a way where his eyes were hidden under his bangs. He had it angled to the side and his lips were quivering. He tried to say something but his voice wouldn’t come out.

Wendy who was still there hugged him around the waist in encouragement as Gray gave him a light peck on his temple. He used their actions as a motivational source and muttered under his breath loud enough for his brother’s draconic hearing to catch onto his words.

“I-I’m sorry for lashing out on you…”

A tiny smile etched itself on the poison mage’s feature as he stood up from his place to walk towards his frustrating yet adorable brother. He wrapped his arms around him and his lips bended upwards even more when he felt a pair of arms embrace him tightly as well.

“It’s alright; I was an ass as well.”

Natsu did not trust his voice at that moment so he nodded in response. He then let go of the person in front of him as he felt his hair being ruffled.

“Come on let’s go have supper or something I’m famished,” Natsu nodded again and took hold of his lover’s hand to drag him with them as Ultear stood to follow with Wendy.

The moment Cobra turned around towards the exit his and his siblings inhumanly enhanced hearing caught the sound of a disgusting scrunch. The purple headed man froze in place and dared not to move or contract a single muscle.

As soon as he found the courage to move he took a step back and gazed at the floor below him, at the exact spot where he heard the disgustingly frightening sound. On his side, the pink headed dragon-slayer’s features turned apathetic all over again whilst his boyfriend only raised an eyebrow at the sight in front of him on the ceramic floor.

Ultear hurriedly reactivated her recording video on her phone so she can show her mother and Jellal how her life-their life if we include Ur-has gone from plain boring to amusing thanks to her brother falling for a clown (a cute clown to be more accurate).

In the meantime, Wendy stood there with her eyes shadowed and her form shaking excessively as she stared with really wide eyes (they all thought they would come out of their sockets any second now) and mouth wide open. Her hands were shaking really badly when she lifted them up to cover her mouth in fright as she took a step back.

“O-Oh god…,” It came out as a whisper from her mouth but they were still able to make out her words.

“Oh lord no…,” She took another step back.

“Nononononononono…,” She was shaking her head with every word she pronounced.

“Nooooo…,” A whimper and another step back.

She suddenly wretched in her hands before she bolted out of the room as they heard her say, “I’m feeling nauseous.”

The elder of the ice mages then stopped the recording and skipped all the way towards the exit while humming contently about the videos she took today.

The poison mage glared in horror and disgust at the creature he just crushed under his foot and tried to avoid the spot it was staining as he made his way out of the room, leaving the couple of ice and fire alone.

“Today was really fun! It might have had a bit of an emotional breakdown somewhere in it but it was still fun and amusing,” said the ice mage.

“Ahun…,” replied the fire mage while looking at the crushed to death creature.

“Haha! Come on, let’s go Natsu,” Gray tugged at the others hand before dragging him outside of the living room area.

They walked with their hands intertwined when Natsu asked Gray, “Hey Gray?”

“Hmm?”

“Are cockroaches that scary?”

A loud burst of laughter could be heard as they made their way towards the kitchen, making the pink head sigh in exasperation as he started preparing supper for those who were famished (although he had a feeling Wendy will not be eating anything for a while…).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed!  
> I based the cockroach thing on a friend of mine who's scared shitless whenever she sees one...specially if it's crushed! she says it disgusts her :p
> 
> ps: if you have any ideas you'd like to see in this story please do suggest them ;) it would be my pleasure to try and include them in it ^^


	13. Fun time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i'll start by saying that I'm extremely sorry for this extremely late update! It's just right now I'm in the middle of my finals and to be honest I had to procrastinate really bad for me to upload this chappy! in fact, while I was stuDYING yesterday, I just went ahead and took a break by typing this chapter and ended up so into it that I found myself with it being completed... so anyways, have fun reading and hopefully it would be to your liking ^_^

“Pleeeeease!”

“No.”

“Pretty pleeeeeease!”

“Nope.”

“C’mon Natsu-nii, pleaaaaaaaase! With some whip cream and a cherry on top?”

“Still no.”

“How about if I add some sprinkles?”

“The answer won’t change Sting.”

“But Natsu-niiiiiiiiii! Even if I add some chocolates?”

The mention of the succulent sweet chocolates made the pink haired teenager stop his movements and ponder quite a bit about his choices. If it were under other circumstances he would have succumbed to his younger brother’s pleas. But that was the problem, today’s outing was not under any other circumstances.

A few days ago, Loke ran from the third floor of the school building towards the second floor with five tickets to the amusement park located in the next town. To be more precise, it was the one situated in the other side of the kingdom of Fiore. The one built in the land of Tora where Sabertooth High was, which is literally the academy that both Sting and Rogue attended. So, in other words, the group of friends was going to hang out in the city both younger dragon-slayers spend most of their time in.

“I’m sorry Sting I can’t take you with me to the amusement park, it’s too risky! Trust me I would have said yes a long time ago if there was a logical explanation to you being with me,” said Natsu exasperated while he was getting ready to leave and unlock the house door.

Sting has been nagging him since the early morning about accompanying him. Rogue left to play with his only real friend Yukino while Wendy would be joining the gang to go out and have fun so she left earlier so that she can get to the meeting point- the train station-before Natsu did. Which left the poor Sting alone because the others were either busy or out.

“Wait!” The light blond held on tight to the end of his older brother’s shirt as he yelled for him to not leave yet.

“If you get to have a good excuse about you bringing me with you would you take me?” he asked with pleading eyes. It may seem like all he wanted to do was have fun but in reality, he just did not want to be left alone in the house. Sure Laxus would still be there but he was so busy correcting school work, he would not even realize Sting’s presence and that was just plain lonely. That was why he hoped from the bottom of his heart that Natsu would give in and accept taking him with him. That was, also, why his face lighted with an intensive amount of happiness at the words that left the pink headed mage’s lips.

“Yes I would.”

Simple words yet they meant a lot to the younger boy whose chest swelled with excitement at the thought of leaving the house and not being alone for the day.

“Then can’t you just tell them that something so important came up and a neighbor of yours asked if you could babysit me while they were away, out of town, for the day but that it was too late for you to cancel your plans with them for today so you just decided to drag me with you?”

Natsu stared amused at the boy in front of him as he thought of the pros and cons of the plan and found no harm in executing it. After ruffling his brother’s hair to an unruly mess, he opened the door and held out his hand for the other to take.

“What’re you waiting for? C’mon let’s go!”

A smile so bright adorned the younger of the two’s features as he jumped on the other making him stumble for a bit before he managed to find his equilibrium back and wrap his arms around the smaller body in contentment.

* * *

 

Sitting in the train, Natsu watched as his friends were giving curious looks to the unexpected child sitting on his lap. Said child tried ignoring them by engaging himself in a conversation with Wendy who was sitting next to Natsu. It worked until Lucy decided to let her curiosity take the lead and ask about him.

“So? Who’s this child?” she said.

The fire mage who was dozing off replied with a non-committed noise and went back to wander in whatever his brain was thinking of as he tried to suppress the nauseating feeling he had at the moment.

Lucy, hating to be ignored, started whining and demanding answers from the unresponsive boy who just wanted to be left alone. How can he concentrate on not feeling sick if someone was trying to talk to him? All he was asking for was to be left alone during their trip towards their destination. He has motion sickness and others pestering him was not going to make him feel better. Definitely not.

Hearing the blond girl whine and throw a hissy fit about the matter made him feel bad for his other friends so he relented a bit to her demands and stared at her with a sickly shade of green and an aura demanding that she finishes her business with him as fast as possible or there will be hell to be seen.

The blond celestial mage being herself, shivered in fright and backed away before remembering that there was no way out behind her. So she simply took hold of her boyfriend’s arm, staring to her side and pouting at the same time.

“I just wanted to know who the child was,” muttered the busty blond, still clinging to Loke’s arm.

“Sting Eucliff, son of my neighbor who got busy at the last second and demanded I take care of him,” responded Natsu in a tone proving his unease of sitting in a moving vehicle.

In front of him, Erza nodded her head in approval, “ I praise your decision to bring him with you and not being irresponsible and leaving him behind on his own or refusing to take care of him during his parents’ absence.”

If he was not so frightened of her, Natsu would have glared daggers at her comment that he interpreted as him being usually irresponsible. But, these past few days made him realize that he valued his life a tad bit more than in the past so arguing with the scarlet headed demon was not an option. He wisely chose to just nod back following it with laying his head on the raven head’s shoulder that was at his left.

Seeing the picture viewed to her, the re-equip mage smiled softly before giving another of her opinions.

“You guys look just like a family it’s so adorable.”

The ice mage’s attention to the greeneries outside the window got interrupted by that statement, he turned his head to face the scarlet headed girl who was wearing a black simple dress adorned with a white ribbon at her cleavage area with a raised eyebrow demanding explanations.

She mirrored his actions before answering, “I mean look at yourselves, Natsu’s leaning on your shoulder while he has a child on his lap and Wendy sitting next to him. Doesn’t it hit you as a family picture when you look at it like this?”

Next to her, Loke chuckled and could not agree more whilst Lucy took out her phone lacrima and shot a quick picture of what they were talking about before Natsu or Gray catches her in the act.

Contrarily to the majority of the teenagers’ reaction, Gray was not finding this amusing. In fact, he was so embarrassed he did not know what to say, so he contented himself by avoiding their gaze and directing his eyes over the outside scenery once again.

On the other hand, Natsu was registering their words in his momentarily non-functional brain and if he were honest it made him somewhat happy to hear them. Even if he was sure it would never happen for him to have his own family, he still hoped. There was nothing wrong with imagining things and it hurts no one so there was no harm done with creating some sort of fictive memories. Besides, his friends would not be able to perceive his thoughts since he masked his face with a blank expression. Well that was, except for the tiny smile he drew on his lips when he saw the happy blush on Sting’s cheeks. Wendy was swinging her legs back and forth trying to contain her emotions so that she would not overreact.

Feeling Gray’s arm wrap itself around his waist Natsu leaned more onto the other’s shoulder and finally gave in to sleep with a smile so relaxed Wendy and Sting just had to grin and confuse the others surrounding them (in exception of the ice mage who was busy smiling on his own while still watching out the train’s window).

* * *

 

After arriving they walked for a few minutes before reaching this huge amusement park that was built in the middle of town. Dubbed as the ‘Sea Park’, this theme park was, apparently, the pride and joy of the townspeople since it was known as the best one in the whole kingdom of Fiore.

The group of friends entered after paying for Sting and handing in their tickets to be stamped. They all stopped in their tracks at the same moment at the sight in front of them. Huge could not describe how big it was and how stunning it was. Many tracks and slides were built hanging in the air with the help of magic. Not only that, but there was water everywhere! It was like entering an incredibly monstrous dome of water that was held up with the help of magic as well. The lighting was leaning towards the blue and some sunlight could be seen here and there thanks to the water being pure and transparent and allowing the rays of the sun to transpierce it with no problems.

The four elder teenagers may have been stunned to silence, but being a bit more mature than two youngest ones they were able to compose themselves faster whilst Wendy and Sting were still gasping in amazement.

Loke was the first to break the silence, “Okay young lads, it’s been fun and all but Lucy and I will be going on our way now to have fun alone as a couple! So later!”

Lucy only had the time to exclaim, “But we just arrived,” before being pulled along by Loke to start their date alone, leaving the others to stare at their retreating backs.

Erza not knowing what to say or do uttered whatever came out in her mind first.

“So uuuh…I guess that means I’ll take the kids and let you guys have your own fun as couple right?” a slight disappointment was clear in her tone, indicating how much she was looking forward to having fun with her friends but was willing to sacrifice that fun for their sakes.

Both slayer mages shook their heads in the negative as an answer to her question and they both knew that they made the right decision when they saw their childhood friend’s face brighten up by their answer.

“Erza, we came here to have fun with our friends, not on a date,” confirmed the fire dragon-slayer.

“That’s right, if I wanted to take Natsu on a date I would do it when we’re alone,” reinforced the ice devil-slayer.

Erza chuckled under her breath before replying fondly, “That’s why you guys are the best.”

Her interlocutors grinned at her as they walked ahead with the children to start their day in what they have been anticipating for days now.

* * *

 

As the day passed, it started to become hot and humid which was expected since the land of Tora was situated near a shore where the temperature was never stable during the day. The weather would usually get them to be cranky with each other and not want to be near each other for the mere reason that their natural body heat would cause them to sweat even more. But, the level of fun they were into made them forget all about it. Although it would not have made any difference for Natsu since fire was his domain and heat always came with it. The one who surprisingly succeeded so well in ignoring it was Gray since him and heat were never able to get along together.

The thing here was that Wendy and Sting being of a smaller stature than the others, the heat would get to them easier and faster, so Erza forced them all to a playground area that had all sorts and kinds of water spouts to keep them cool and wet (not that any of them complained).

During their water games, a slide caught Sting’s eyes and he insisted on going down the slide with his older brother who could not resist in any way the puppy eyes he was making. In resignation to his fate, he went along with the young blond and rode with him on it. On the side you could see Erza and Gray giggling as Natsu did his best to restrain his self from puking his guts out while sliding down with Sting on his lap being held tightly by the fire mage’s arms.

Sting came down in a fit of laughter while the pink headed teenager was acquiring a sickly shade of green on his facial skin with his eyebrows scrunched together. Even thought that, he still had a tiny grin etched on his features when he heard his brother laugh so much and feeling glad for bringing him with them instead of leaving him at home doing nothing on his own.

When the slide ride was over, Natsu stumbled over to Gray’s side while Sting jumped energetically asking for more but getting a firm no from the fire mage who was now sitting on a bench near the slides to recompose his self. Seeing the dejected face of the youngster for being told no, Erza proposed she accompanies him which instantly brought back the smile to the light dragon-slayer’s face.

After a couple times of running back to ride the water slide with Gray, Wendy and Erza again, Sting and Wendy’s stomachs manifested their hunger by making some weird grumbling sounds, thus leading them to decide that it was time for lunch.

Erza being the eldest and most responsible out of them decided to start looking for a restaurant or a food stand they would all agree on. But, the hand that held her forearm thought otherwise.

“It’s alright Erza, I’ve brought food with me,” smiled Natsu, lightly bouncing a bag in the air.

“You did? Why?” asked the scarlet head astonished.

“Gray begged me to cook and make our own food so I did,” he nonchalantly replied while shrugging his shoulders.

“That’s because his cooking is heavenly! You gotta try it Erza!” interjected the ice mage.

“It’s true!” added Sting, Wendy nodded in approval.

“Well then I must taste it! And it does save us on the money side,” she folded her arms in front of her chest, “Okay, let’s just go find us a nice spot to settle in for lunch.”

And find a nice spot they did.

* * *

 

“Goodness! How is it possible for you to make such an exquisitely delicious meal?!” exclaimed the re-equip mage while she was enjoying a piece of mango mousse cake, earning a light blush from the pink headed boy.

“I really don’t see why you guys make a big deal out of it, I only follow the recipe in the book,” muttered Natsu embarrassed from all the attention he was getting. He then felt someone lean on his shoulder and found Gray’s face merely inches away from his face with a fork held between his teeth as he smiled widely at him.

“C’mon Natsu, stop being so modest, admit it, you have talent in this thing and don’t go spouting some nonsense about following a recipe from a book because last time I checked, I did the same thing with chocolate chip cookies and they came out of the oven as a couple of piles of ashes!”

Natsu’s blush spread up until his ears when the ice mage decided to close his words with a tiny peck to his lips.

“I must say Natsu, Gray has a point, following the book does not imply delicious food! Only talent does! Well…following a recipe can also unsure great food but not _this_ yummy!” Erza completely forgot to use her usual formal manner of speech by the end of her sentence since she was still surprised by how great Natsu, _the_ Natsu, was as a cook. His boisterous personality was far from showing this quality of his.

“Yeah! Natsu-nii’s cooking is always the best! He always feeds me good food and it makes me happy all the time!” Sting added to the conversation.

“You can’t deny that it is worth a five star hotel,” smiled Wendy as she stared at her older brother.

“Can we please change the subject? I’m starting to turn red from these compliments,” he hid his face with an arm as Gray started to pull him up to his chest from how cute his boyfriend was acting.

“I will if you bake me strawberry shortcake next time!” said Erza.

“Geh! Why?” the fire mage leaned onto his lover’s chest, sipping some fruit punch juice out of a paper cup.

“Do you need to ask?” the scarlet head spoke with so much enthusiasm it made the boys stare at her in amusement, “Strawberry shortcake is my favorite dessert, meal, lunch and snack ever! If it were possible I would have married it a veeeeery long time ago!”

She then went on and on about the varieties of strawberries that exist in the world and how each and every specie would make an incredible cake. She also kept on fantasizing out loud about living in a cake paradise, swimming amongst all the different varieties of strawberry shortcakes. Thus, making Wendy, Gray and Natsu start chuckling which transformed into giggles when Erza decided to go into more details about how incredibly amazing it would be if she were to marry a cream and strawberry filled cake. Their giggles went out to become full out laughter after Sting joined the re-equip mage into her fantasies about living in a world filled with cakes and their different flavors.

* * *

 

It was really late in the evening and the group of friends thought it was time to start heading home, especially after they saw how the kids’ eyes started drooping from the tiredness they felt thanks to the amusing day they had.

Erza had gotten a text message through her lacrima induced phone from Lucy telling her that they can leave without them since Loke had decided to prolong their date until really late at night. So, Gray and the others were now sitting in the train whereas their overly-flirty friends left to go continue their date somewhere more romantic, or so Loke stated.

When the train arrived back to Magnolia city, they walked together towards the path where they meet at before leaving for school together. They decided that since it was late at night, it would be safer to walk together instead of going each their separate ways at the train station. Besides, they were all heading the same anyways since they did not live extremely far from each other. Not that Erza would have known anything about it.

“With this I bid you a good night and be careful on your way back,” she said, already walking away towards her house, “Also, thank you for not going your own way back at the theme park and having us play together!”

“It was no problem Erza,” yelled Gray, nodding his head to the retreating form of their friend.

“Sweet dreams to you as well,” added Natsu, waving his hand to her.

“You be careful as well!” exclaimed Wendy while cupping her mouth with her hands.

Erza gave them a last nod before retreating without looking back.

“Okay, I’ll be leaving as well now,” Gray said it while leaning in closer to Natsu’s face as if demanding for a kiss.

The fire mage gave him what he wanted without any hesitations, a peck on the lips which transformed into a deeper kiss with a lot more meaning thanks to Gray and said mage waved at them before leaving his own way.

Natsu stayed to stare at the retreating back of their friends, when their forms completely disappeared he took hold of Wendy’s hand and walked his way back home with Sting sleeping in his arm.

* * *

 

After putting the kids to sleep and taking a long hot shower, the pink headed mage went downstairs in the kitchen to have a small snack before going to sleep.

When he left the kitchen he found his brothers-Cobra, Gajeel and Laxus-in the living room talking about something that seemed so serious from their facial expression.

He decided to enter and when he did he caught Gajeel warning Laxus about something.

“What’re you guys talking about?”

All three of them turned their heads towards the fire dragon-slayer when he spoke.

“Natsu!” Cobra grinned his way, “You’re back, how was your outing today? Was it fun?”

“It was really fun and Sting and Wendy were fully entertained, they played so much they ended up sleeping on the way home.”

“Gihi! At least they had a change of environment for once, you as well.”

“Yeah,” Natsu smiled his brothers’ way, “How about you guys, how was your day?”

A silence so deafening took place in the room while the fire mage went and took a spot next to Laxus on the sofa. Not liking the atmosphere he stared around him at his brothers and waited with unease for one of them to speak. He did not need to wait long for Laxus sighed deeply before he spoke.

“We have big problems coming up,” he pinched the bridge of his nose before going on, “Phantom Lord High is planning on attacking Fairy Tail high soon.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now then...do tell me your thoughts? okay? good? bad? very bad? fluffy? cute?


	14. Infiltration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there you lovely little kittens ^_^ I know I said that I'm in my finals' period but hahaha...I somehow found some time for this...sooooo please enjoy :)

Burning embers shimmered from the desolation that was emanated by where the once whole, prestigious building of Fairy Tail High stood.

Not too long ago-a few days after Gajeel came back home to inform his brothers of Phantom Lord High’s director’s plans-Natsu, Gray, Erza, Lucy and Wendy reached school early in the morning to find the building damaged beyond repair by extremely huge metal rods. Natsu and Wendy (who had a heads-up about the situation so she can be careful) knew what was happening but seeing the school directed by the man who supported them since a long time ago in such a shape was still a shock to them.

“W-What happened here?” Lucy’s voice was shaking from fear.

The same question was roaming in everyone’s mind, even the two dragon-slayers. A scent so familiar was hanging in the air and their thoughts were in shambles because of all the questions popping all over their brains. They knew who caused the destruction of the building and they had a hard time believing it even though their senses never lied to them. But, under the shock of the situation they refused to believe their sense of smell this time around. There was no way the smell was right, it was impossible.

The rustic smell of metal and coins that roamed in the air was definitely not the one they were familiar with. The hint of old books and paper was also a lie, it was not true. It could not be true. It was not the same, Natsu and his sister refused to acknowledge the signals that were sent to their brains, allowing them to recognize the unique perfume they were picking up from the air surrounding them. Especially not after they recognized the nauseating and strong smell of blood coming from a spot a little farther then their guild. The blood of someone they were used to smelling, albeit usually it came out less strong and did not make them feel sick since it was underlaid by a layer of soft and light skin. It was the blood of the person they met plenty of times while they were accompanying their older brother. The blood of the one and only mate of Gajeel Redfox, Levy McGarden…

* * *

 

Gray could see it. Both of them stood there as if screwed to the ground by a strong force. Even when Erza told them-ordered them would apply better-to follow her inside the destroyed building, they had not moved a single limb.

Worried, Gray went to the fire mage’s side. He took hold of his shoulder and started speaking softly, telling him to follow the others inside but still, the pink headed teenager did nothing to show that he heard him. Not a single sound came out of him. It was like he got frozen stiff by Medusa herself.

The ice devil-slayer tried again but it was no use. Natsu just would not budge. He even tried pulling him which worked in regard of moving him but it gave the impression that he was moving a doll of some sort. It seemed like the poor guy was under some sort of humongous shock. And, nothing better could have been told about Wendy either. In fact, it seems like she was in a worse state than his lover was.

He tried being gentle once again but it still has not worked to snap the other teenager out. Fed up and scared about what was happening Gray threw a punch to his boyfriend’s face causing the later to fly and hit a pile of debris caused by the late events that occurred in the city because of Phantom Lord.

He took a deep breath then yelled, “Snap out of it you idiot! I don’t know what’s going on but you need to snap out of whatever’s shocking you! Standing like a statue will not help the situation that’s for sure!”

The ice mage stared at where the other boy landed from the punch and a pang of guilt hit him in the guts when he saw the bruise that was starting to form on tanned cheeks. Though, it disappeared when he saw the green orbs he came to love stare back at him with a new light in them and some sort of glint of determination and trust in them for some reason he ignores.

Natsu held his already purple cheek with the palm of his left hand and used the other to stand up from the rubble that was surrounding him. He winced in pain when he tried to retort to his lover and contented himself to simply walk towards Wendy. He picked her up in his arms and turned to face the raven head with a pout adorning his facial features.

“Sorry about freaking you out like that,” a tiny blush made its way on one spot next to his nose.

Gray sighed in relief, “No problem, just don’t do it again,” he made his way to the fire mage and hugged him.

“Sorry,” Natsu’s voice was soft.

“It’s okay,” he let go of the other to create enough space to pear at his face, “So? What’s wrong?”

“The school building is destroyed.”

“I know that, but both you and Wendy were stiff! Wendy still is…”

“Hmm…Where’s Erza and Luce?”

“They went inside and don’t change the subject, what’s wrong?”

“I wasn’t, I was just curious!” The fire mage breathed deeply before going on, “I can smell the scent of blood and it’s one I know…Also…the metals, I, he, it’s not his fault I’m sure of it! He’d never do such a thing willingly! It can’t be!”

“Woa, woa! Calm down!” Gray hugged him to his chest in a successful attempt to calm him down, “And who’re you talkin’ about?”

“My brother, Gajeel, it’s him, he’s the one who destroyed the guild,” he suddenly raised his head out of the comfort of his boyfriend’s arms with wide, pleading eyes and trembling lips, “But don’t blame him! I’m sure there was a reason to why he did it! He couldn’t have done it willingly! Besides he’s the one who told us about the attack and-”

“He told you about it? You knew this would happen?” Gray was astonished.

“No! Wait, yes I did, but we didn’t know when and how! He told me about it the other day when we came back from the amusement park but Laxus said that it would be better if I kept quiet about it so to not worry anyone and create unnecessary rumors but he said he would make sure to inform the principal Makarov and I’m sure he did!”

“So you’re saying that the old man was aware of this?”

“Yes!”

“Then everything’s alright ok? No one’s going to blame Gajeel for it, will they?”

“I don’t know it’s just I-I wasn’t expecting him to do this a-and…H-He…Levy…,” the fire dragon-slayer could not help his stutters.

“Levy? What’s wrong with her? What’s she got to do with this?”

“I can smell it, it’s hers, the blood, it’s hers! A-And he-”

“He what Natsu,” the ice mage cupped the bruised tan cheek and prompted him in looking at him in the eyes.

The dragon-slayer was about to reply but someone beat him to it, “Gajeel-nii’s the one who injured her, his smell is too strongly mixed with that of the blood, but she’s not dead, he’d never kill his lover!”

Both teenagers turned their heads towards the one that was currently being held by them. Wendy looked at them before jumping from between her brother’s arms and held on to his hand instead. She seemed to have resolved her brain into believing in the iron mage even if what he did was horrible.

“We should go in before they start wondering what happened to us,” said Gray.

“Yeah…”

Seeing the dejected face that was made by the pink head, the ice mage leaned in over him and kissed his forehead, causing Natsu to scrunch his face lightly and huff as well. Gray chuckled and started walking towards what was left of their school, pulling the two others along.

* * *

 

By the end of the day, the school principal took a decision and made sure that everyone would follow his instructions by insuring to punish anyone who does not accordingly. He had announced that since there was a possibility that Phantom Lord was aware of every student’s living area, it would be safe if they traveled home in groups. Or, better yet, if they were able to sleep over someone else’s house then that would be safer for everyone. Next to him, all the teachers stood nodding their heads in approval to his statement.

After his speech, Laxus left his side to pull Wendy and Natsu aside. Succeeding in doing so, he took them to an isolated area and spoke to them with a strain in his voice, proving how unwilling he was of uttering his following words.

“You guys…What the old stupid fucking man said wasn’t the end of it,” his face was contorted in a mix of anger, helplessness and fright.

“Not the end of it? You mean grandpa hadn’t mentioned something?” The sky maiden tilted her head in confusion.

“Well yeah, we should be thankful to him about not mentioning Gajeel, I mean, the stupid baldy sensed his magic all over the place and I think the metal head made sure of that. Also, we have the injured Levy which he didn’t mention so that he doesn’t frighten or worry the other students. Finally, he also didn’t mention that he’s planning on doing an infiltration mission…”

“Hmm…, is he planning on using the teachers to do that?” wondered Natsu.

Laxus pinched the bridge of his nose, “No! And that’s why I feel like plummeting him to the ground, but do I have a say in this? Nooooo! He just had to make the decision on his own the motherfucking shit,” he grumbled the last part under his breath.

“Anyways, the bastard wants you guys to infiltrate that shit fuck of a school,” he tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“Uuuuuuh…Wait…Let me get this straight, old man wants me and Wendy to pretend we’re students of Phantom Lord to get some information on why they attacked?” Natsu pointed at himself and his sister before narrowing his eyes when Laxus nodded in confirmation with his words.

“Nope. Not happening. Sorry man, this ain’t happening! I’ll go, sure! But Wendy’s not gonna be going!”

“Look here kid, if it were up to me none of you is going but we owe the old man a lot so I just couldn’t say no!” he pulled at his hair in frustration.

“I know that, I’m really grateful to him for that but Wendy’s not going!”

“N-Natsu-nii, I-I don’t mind.”

“Wendy no! I’m not going to deliberately put you in danger!” He turned to face the blond man, “If you don’t want me to go alone, you better find someone else other than Wendy to accompany me!”

The lightening mage sighed in resignation, “Fine, but who would go there and be recognized by Gajeel? It has to be someone he knows so that if something happens and both of you get separated or anything like that before meeting him, he’d know that the person is not an enemy but a spy sent by us.”

“Levi-nee would have been a good option…,” muttered Wendy.

“Even if she wasn’t in any critical condition I wouldn’t have sent her, Gajeel would have had all of our heads off,” replied Laxus.

“What about Gray? He knows Gray and he’s my b-boyfriend so it should be fine right?” suggested Natsu.

Laxus stared at him with a raised brow as he hummed. A glint of mischief flashed in his blue electric eyes when a smirk stretched on his lips, making his younger brother shiver in fear of whatever the elder dragon-slayer was planning.

“Not bad Natsu,” he ruffled said boy’s hair, “Like this the infiltration plan would work tons times better.”

“E-Eh? What do you mean Laxus?”

“It means what it means dear younger brother,” he took hold of the pink head’s collar and dragged him along as he made his way back with Wendy walking next to them calmly.

He then started to laugh maniacally, making the other two stare at each other in worry. It wasn’t long before the worry in Natsu’s facial features transformed into that of a horrified one when the blond uttered his next words.

“By the way Natsu, did I mention that you will have to go there disguised as a pink haired girl?”

You could only hear the screams and yells of a pour soul resonate in the destroyed guild of Magnolia as said soul tried to run away from the clutches of his demonic brother but in vain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There! Now then, a penny for your thoughts? ^.^


	15. Dilemma?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to start by thanking everyone who took the time to review and comment on the story even though i have been "absent" for quite a long time! You have no idea how happy i was when i read them; it made my day every single time! Especially since i used to be notified of them at the right moment where i was feeling so down and getting deep into depression or anxiety so thank you so much!
> 
> Also, i would just love to refrain from saying or uttering any "excuse" for my prolonged hiatus (which i should ask for forgiveness for since i haven't warned anyone about it! Please forgive moi!). Some things happened but hopefully everything should be fine now and i should be able to restart with writing the story :D
> 
> Just a little warning thought, i am in my freshman year in university and trust me when i say that time management is one of the most important things at uni and i seem to be lacking A LOT in that domain so yeah... there might - will - be slow updates occurring but i'm crossing my fingers for it to not happen at all!
> 
> With that i'll leave you to it and thank you all once again for not abandoning the story even after my long time away from writing!
> 
> Disclaimer: The characters and some ideas of the plot do not belong to me but the one and only Hiro Mashima ^_^
> 
> Warning: This chapter is long overdue so to be honest i typed it in a rush, i'm not proud of it and I’m convinced that it's boring and full of *cough* shit *ahem* so read to your own discretion!

Sitting on the edge of a surprisingly unscathed table, a pink haired beauty was heatedly glaring at the unusually quiet audience. Natsu would have, undoubtedly, laughed at their hilarious expressions but since the reason behind their side eyes and slacked jaws was his currently un-amusing situation, he stuck with sending them all a glare so dark, Makarov Dreyar himself had not dared utter a single mocking word about the fire mage’s demise.  

Unfortunately for Natsu, Mirajane was given the task of transforming him into a completely different gender. It being her forte, she did an exceedingly amazing job at it. If it had not been done in front of him, Gray would have had thought the man in disguise was someone else other than his boyfriend. But, knowing they were the same person, he gave himself the permission to stare openly at the gorgeous sight.

Natsu had an extension added to his unruly hair, giving him an even wilder look. His already long eyelashes were shining under the light in such an enticing way that it made the ice mage feel the heat somewhere under his navel. Mirajane must have applied some sort of magic induced make-up for the pink lashes to seem like some sort of very exquisite and expensive silk.

Green orbs shined brightly with the reflection of the light. If he hadn’t known any better, Gray would have thought his lover’s eyes were shards extracted from the most tropical and invigorating green (with some specks of yellow) gemstone out there. Fortunately for Gray he _did_ know better so he moved his gaze away from the hypnotizing eyes to a lower spot.

A groan made its way out of his lips when he realized that he just caused the weirdly uncomfortable sensation between his legs to intensify the moment his eyes fell on pink, smooth looking, and plump lips.

Gray would have continued eating his other half with his eyes but Erza’s knowing smirk stopped his sensual starring. A blush crept on his cheeks and with an embarrassed huff, for being caught, he stomped his way towards the one person that made him feel a tingling sensation all over his body.

Especially down-south…

This was bad, could it be that he was developing some weird fetish related to cross-dressing? He hoped not but more importantly, if he was then he hoped Natsu wouldn't catch on to it!

He took his place next to Natsu on the table after the pink head nudged over for some space. The fire mage refused to turn his head towards the devil slayer even when said slayer tried to poke him for some attention.

Eventually he resigned to his fate and Natsu indulged the ice boy by staring at him from the side while his – somewhat unnatural – lips formed a childish pout.

“What?” He practically yelled. Can you blame him? The pocking was starting to be annoying. Especially since Gray moved his ministrations from his right cheek slowly towards his rib-cage and that was particularly annoying.

“What, what?”

“You know exactly what I meant you friggin’ stripper! And would you stop doing that?” Natsu tried to pry off the hand that moved back towards his cheek all the while glaring daggers at the man sitting beside him.

He was also trying so hard not to blush at the bright yet silly grin Gray was sporting on his lips.

Noticing the fire mage’s dilemma, the ice mage decided to spare him for the moment. He couldn’t promise anything about the rest of the day thought…

For now he contented himself to reply, “What can I say, your beauty was very enchanting my la-“

Before he got the opportunity to finish his words, a loud and somewhat threatening noise was heard from in between his legs. When he cautiously directed his gaze towards the spot, his face blanched at the gaping hole that was _mysteriously_ formed there.

Gray then slowly but deliberately turned his head towards his left side and stared incredulously at the person that was sitting there.

“I would suggest you not finish that sentence _darling_ ,” an unusual, venomous yet overly-sweet voice crept out of the same lips he was enjoying staring at not too long ago.

“N-Natsu you piece of shit, don’t you dare use that tone of voice with me!” Gray tried to show he wasn’t affected by the creepiness of the situation, but it was clear as the moon is during a cloudless night that he was actually affected by it and dare he say, he was frightened.

“It was scary,” he decided to add as an after-thought and obviously under his breath.

Of course under his breath, there was no way that he would let every freaking single person in the guild hear that Gray, _the_ Gray Fullbuster, was tamed by a mere tone of voice and from his rival to boot!

Not that they were aware of anything different, they hadn’t broadcast-ed their change of status with each other to their schoolmates yet (in exception to their tiny, little group of friends).

Anyways, if the guild members knew any better they would have said something resembling the lines of hormonal wife or whatever but obviously Gray didn’t know anything about wives, or girlfriends, or whatever since as it can be seen, his companion was a boy, a b-o-y!

Right?

Right.

Besides, if word traveled in the guild that the ice boy was scared of something then he will be infinitely teased about it until death does him apart from this unaccomplished and somewhat amusing life he was going through.

So, duuuuuuuuuuuh!

Of course he said it under his breath.

* * *

 

Apparently fate just loved to play tricks on him, since he apparently forgot that his companion was sitting next to him and that apparently said companion had a good sense of hearing. Which apparently was enhanced by a ton compared to any other fucking person sitting inside if the semi-demolished building. And, apparently that’s because he was a god damn dragon-slayer. Yet, Gray had apparently managed to forget about that little - who was he kidding, it was huge – detail and that apparently left him anything but careful, to which it apparently lead to his doom since _fucking apparently_ the somewhat handsome- scratch that- the extremely sexy Natsu Dragneel had heard his last remark and nothing can be said otherwise since the smirk – that looks too good by the way – that crept on the salmon haired mage’s lips indicated that he _definitely_ had heard it.

“Remind me again why did I have to leave my warm and _apparently_ safe bed this morning instead of being here?”

Natsu’s smirk grew on his face and his legs started swinging of their own accord when he turned to point at a scarlet headed mage sitting not too far from them (no doubt enjoying a strawberry short cake).

“Oh right, I nearly forgot, the devil paid me a visit while I was asleep…,” Gray’s expression was far from being anything close to normal. He was remembering the untold and inhuman events of that morning and a shiver ran through his spine from the thought alone of what had happened then.

That morning, Gray had been laying on his newly bought mattress (after the last one was ruined to a state of no-return by a PMS-ing Ultear), relaxing and dozing off for an extra couple of minutes before reality would decide to crash over his dream and force him to get up and get ready for school.

Fortunately for him, reality hadn’t had the chance to pull him away from in between Morph’s gracious arms.

Unfortunately for him, the explosion that sounded from the entrance of his room had found so much pleasure and no regret or a second thought to complete the job instead.

He had startled from his position on the bed while his disoriented mind tried to puzzle out what had happened at the instant.

Still being out of it and before he knew it, Lyon had barged in while stepping on the broken pieces of the wooden door without a care in the world and, out of the blue, carried him like a sack of potato on his shoulders as he went back through the shattered entrance of the room.

What he hadn’t known back then was that Lyon was putting on a brave face as the sole of his feet bled profusely from the splinters of wood that deeply penetrated the skin. He also hadn’t known that, at that moment, Lyon would have rather been dead than bringing the wrath of Satan over himself.

Back to the point…

Still being in a muddled state of mind, Gray let himself be carried to god knows where and tried to regain the stage of slumber he was in.

Nevertheless, all was in vain when he found himself in front of a red headed demon and out of the house.

He could have sworn that he had heard the white haired ice mage mutter something along the lines of absolutely refusing to sacrifice his sanity for Gray’s sake as he went back inside the house as if nothing happened. The only indication that he was ever there was the trail of blood that he left behind with every step he had taken.

As Gray had incredulously starred at the now locked front door, the spawn of Satan had pulled him by his shirt’s collar and walked away without any explanations. This had left the ice mage with no other options but to comply and complain about being woken up at such an ungodly hour and about how he was going to beat up to death any and all dipshits that claimed to be the best brother in the whole wide world but end up stabbing their younger siblings in the back the very second a threat endangers them!

After being manhandled from the second he had stirred to consciousness, Gray was more than happy to sit down when he was ordered to by the one and only Erza Scarlet.

Something must be wrong with him, he’s been fooling himself a lot lately…

He was just happy to have been released from the scary monster’s clutches. Who wouldn’t be when she was smirking (or was it a laugh?) evilly all the way to Fairy Tail High?

Gray had shuddered at his unknown fate and grimaced at the idea alone of what was awaiting him. He just hoped he’ll come sane enough out of his friend’s plans to eat the ice cream he bought yesterday.

It was mint with chocolate chips flavored ice cream.

He would do anything to come out of this – whatever that may be – unscathed, even if it meant he needed to sacrifice his most valuable thing to alleviate the devil’s anger!

Well…

 _Mostly_ anything.

He wasn’t so cruel as to throw Natsu into the clutches of hell. Natsu may be an annoying brat sometimes but was still too important for him to do that. Even his mother’s ice cream cake wouldn’t hold a chance against his boyfriend in his heart.

So yup, screw everything to hell except for his adorable and valued (not that he’ll ever tell him that) pink headed lover.

Thinking about the fire mage made him direct his gaze back to the disguised mage who was still sitting next to him.

Before meeting with Natsu, Erza had dragged him to a room who-knows-where in the guild and he remembers taking back his words about the mint flavored ice cream and that ice cream cake wasn’t worth any of the weird shit that was going on in the room.

A sweetly smiling Mirajane had been pinching a mini (if it can be called that – it was barely a couple of centimeters long) skirt while an anxious Natsu had hid behind a furious looking Laxus.

After seeing that, Gray didn’t want to set a single foot inside that room, but obviously the choice was forced upon him without a single word of warning.

Erza had pushed (thrown) him inside, making him look like a dear caught in headlight when the other occupants turned their heads towards him.

Again, he had freaked out back then, but just one look at his boyfriend and he was glad to have been dragged away from his bed.

The train of his thought was broken by a mere shove of his shoulder. Readying himself to shout at whomever supposedly bumped into him, he opened his mouth but froze in mid-shout and let out a long sigh when he saw who it was.

“What?” He mumbled.

“You were spacing out when I was trying to ask you something,” replied Natsu as he shrugged his shoulders.

Gray huffed before saying, “I wasn’t spacing out, but whatever, what were you trying to say?”

Natsu’s calculating gaze told him he didn’t believe a single word he had said but didn’t try to pry more into it, “I was just wondering if you wanted to head out to Phantom Lord now so we can get it done and over with?”

Gray nodded before hopping off his side of the table. When his feet landed on the floor, he turned around to face the fire mage and stretched his arm towards him.

Natsu raised a questioning brow at the action but only received a wiggle of the fingers in expectation from Gray’s hand as a response. That led Natsu to fondly shake his head in exasperation as he gave his hand out for the ice mage to grasp and grin in satisfaction.

“Are you ready princess?”

“I don’t know anything about the princess part and I’ll make sure to make you pay for that later but, sure,” he tilted his head to the side and a matching grin took place on the bottom of his face.

“Ready when you are stripper.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :) Do tell me your thoughts and what you think i should improve on!


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